In My Own Little Corner
by splitsanity
Summary: No, this has nothing to do with the song from R&H's Cinderella. MxM if you don't like don't read! A child silently walks up to Gibbs' desk and calls Ziva Mother!  What happened to his parents and why is a red-headed, green-eyed boy using JSL?  Don't own!
1. Chapter 1

In My Own Little Corner

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><p><em><strong>This is a very new topic for me... been trying to get into the mood of writing a good NCIS McGibbs fic that is more case than romance but has a decent amount of slash – as I do so love McGibbs together. I would like to thank my friends in real life that help me review, edit, and points to the plotline. Please don't get mad that there isn't enough McGibbs-y goodness, it literally just wrote itself and have been told it's pretty good. Please R&amp;R. Criticisms and helps are always welcomed in my inbox and I will try to take them constructively.m<strong>_

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><p>The day started out the same: McGee woke up in bed, leaning on Gibbs who, by this point in the morning, was awake and sitting up, simply waiting for the younger man to stir. The smell of coffee filled the upstairs of the house, as Gibbs obviously had already put on a pot of coffee before they went to work. Life with Gibbs was strangely satisfying to green-eyed man, as he got out of bed, headed to the shower to get ready for work. Gibbs finally decided to get out of the bed as well when he heard the sound of water rushing from the bathroom.<p>

"Be ready in 20, Tim." The older man said loud enough to be heard over the rushing water his lover was enjoying. "I have a feeling things are going to get mighty interesting today."

Downstairs in 10, dressed and ready to go, McGee looked at his watch. _0530_ it read. "Jethro, what the hell are we doing up at 5:30?" McGee had been used to his lover and boss let him sleep until 0630 to go into work at 0700.

"Got some things I wanted to do before we went to work. Besides, I didn't wake you; the coffee seemed to do that pretty well." Gibbs replied simply with a smirk that filled his face.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs!" Tim yelled out in a playful tone as he grabbed Jethro by the tie. "What ever am I going to do with you?" He smiled devilishly and gave his older lover a long, passionate kiss.

…

Gibbs and McGee stopped by a local breakfast place that was already open. "I could have simply made breakfast." Whined McGee as the server brought out their food.

"I know, but I do like to treat you every now and then. Or is that crime?" Gibbs retorted with a smile as he began to work on his eggs and hashbrowns.

McGee, ever being the flirt he was, simply blushed and said, "No, but I'll have to find a way to make it one."

The two men ate their breakfast, enjoying each other's company, and had a delightful time waiting to go to work. In the car, Gibbs placed his left hand on the steering wheel and the other on Tim's knee. It was a different feeling to explain, even for Gibbs, but he knew that he loved Tim. Tim made him laugh, smile, and ultimately relax, like nothing his three ex-wives could do. He could only compare the love he had for Tim to the love he had for Shannon and Kelly. He wasn't disrespecting them, he had had other male relationships in his lifetime, but Tim was something different-something special-and he wanted to keep Tim from any harm that came his way. That was when he knew he was in love with his youngest agent. Sure, Tony would have been someone special, if he were, but something about Tim captivated the older man and to this day, he hadn't figured out what.

…

As they came to the Yard, they were getting ready to get out of the car, when they ran into Tony. "Hey Boss. Hey Probie. How ya doin'?"

"Okay, DiNozzo. Why are you so early?" McGee snickered when Gibbs asked that, not expecting the head-smack that came with his laughter.

"Boss! What was that for?" Those big green eyes turned into puppy dog eyes and Tim's big lower lip began to pout. Restraining from attacking him at that sight, Jethro turned his attention to Tony.

"Do we have any new cases, Tony? I do not want to spend another day working on cold cases."

"Boss, it's only 0645. I have had a _very_ long night, and I don't think I'm up for field duty today." DiNozzo complained. "But if we do get a case, I'll be glad to do my best." He realized that look in those steel blue eyes that if he didn't save himself he'd be the recipient of a head-smack as well and with the headache that was already present, it would only add to the pain.

…

"I apologized for being late, Gibbs. The traffic today was homicide?" Officer David said as a question to get it right. Gibbs did a quite unnoticed look to his watch, which read 0715.

"Murder, Ziva, 'Traffic was _murder._'."

She gave Tony a look that sent a shiver down his spine and his head back into the paperwork on his desk. She was sick of having DiNozzo correct her when she had misspoken an idiom. Quite frankly, she was at a point of no return, as well. She, too, was suffering from a headache, although it probably wasn't an alcohol-induced one like Tony's 'headache'.

As she said this, a child walked up to Agent Gibbs desk. "May I help you, young man?" The boy stared a Gibbs as if he were a foreigner. Realizing quickly, what might be the cause of the stare, Gibbs began to sign "You Deaf ?" This evoked an even odder look from the child. "Ziva, how many languages do you know?"

"Ten. Why, Gibbs?" The leader of the team didn't have time to respond when she looked at the tears that filled the eyes of the small child. The little boy reminded her of her sister, Talia, when she was his age, which she guessed to be about 8 or 9. She hurried over to the boy, picked him up, and started to wipe his tears away as she cooed him in Hebrew. The little boy stopped crying, pulled his right index finger to his right dimple, and brought it down his cheek to his pinky raised. He then placed it on Ziva's left cheek. With this, even Mossad officer Ziva David couldn't help but begin to cry.

Gibbs understood this to be sign language, but _which_ language was the question. "McGee, I need you to find out from which language that sign came. Tony, I need you to find a translator in legal department. We're not dealing with American or British English." This was why his gut was never wrong.

…

After an hour, Tony came back to the bullpen with Agent Isuma Yamato. A tall man, with skin that obviously implied–as with his name–his homeland, Agent Yamato was one of the best lawyers NCIS had ever acquired. "Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, you sent for me?" He said as he bowed to show the respect Agent Gibbs had earned from the Legal Department. With this, the young child that was held captive in Officer David's arm began to worm and squirm at the sight of the bow.

The boy put his index finger on his cheek, brought it down with is thumb in an upright position, and began pushing it towards the Agent from other building. The old man smiled and chuckled as he spoke to the child, "How do you know Japanese Sign Language, little one? And, no, I am not your father." With this, Agent Yamato walked over to Ziva, relinquished her hold upon the child, while speaking in his native tongue to the child.

"Which means, he called Ziva _mother_!" Tony barely said before sitting in his chair, nearly dying of laughter.

"McGee!" Gibbs looked frustrated that in the hour that Tony had been gone, his lover hadn't found the sign equivalent.

"I'm sorry, Boss…" His voice began to trail off. "I didn't get a clear view, and I don't know American Sign Language, much less did I know that Japanese Sign Language was different." He began to blush, and Gibbs began to hate the fact that he had jumped down Tim's throat. Tony, however, noticed the unspoken exchange between lovers and began to speculate just how much of that blushing was necessary at work. He knew that his Probie was prone to blushing, but this amount was not appropriate.

…

As the morning progressed, Agent Yamato explained to Agent Gibbs that JSL was rare-but not unheard of-especially since his own mother was becoming deaf. Jethro went up to see Director Vance to inquire if anything had happened at NCIS Osaka. Vance hadn't heard anything, but that didn't mean nothing hadn't happened, yet. He walked into MTAC with Jethro, McGee, Agent Yamato, and the young boy in his arms. "Do we even have a name to this child?" Vance roared at the three men. He thought, surely, between the three of them, someone would have asked him his name. All three of them were suddenly intimidated–even Gibbs (this was a rare sight). Agent Yamato wrote on a piece of paper, telling the young child his name and asking for his. He responded by writing his name, which severely shocked them all. He wrote his name to be David MacAlswerth. An English name, to an eight year old who was using JSL.

"Well, that settles it. McGee, get NCIS Osaka on the vid feed and we're going to figure out why Daniel and Catherine MacAlswerth's child is here without them!" commanded Leon.

"Yes, Director." McGee said quickly, noticing the anger flaring within Vance's voice. Within seconds, McGee had pulled the video feed for NCIS Osaka and Director Vance was looking at Director Michiko Kouno, her beauty was only matched by her own name.

"Yes, Director Vance. You summoned me?" She inquired as she bowed. Agent Yamato was impressed that he was not the only Japanese person that still bowed in the presence of authority. "What is wrong on your side of the world? Is it Al-Qaeda?" She asked, Vance noting that her concern was true.

"No, It's not Al-Qaeda. Do you have the position of Daniel and Catherine MacAlswerth, Michiko?"

The woman looked as if she had seen a ghost. "They were taking some time off to travel, where they went, I do not know, but I assure you I will find them for you. Anything specific? Is that David? May I speak with him, sir?"

The little boy was squirming ferociously in Agent Yamato's arms. He obviously wanted to get loose to talk to the woman on the screen. Director Vance turned around, and upon seeing how determined the child was to get free, granted his permission on the condition that she or Agent Yamato translate. They both agreed with an unison "Hai!" to let Jethro know they would help him. The little boy stood there and signed his arms off. Agent Yamato translated for both sides of the conversation.

Apparently, Daniel and Catherine were stopping in America, specifically D.C., before they crossed the ponds to visit family for Christmas. Five days ago, Daniel and Catherine landed, made reservations for their son–which they would shortly join, after a dinner meeting–and they would go to the National Christmas Tree on the lawn of the "white house". The boy was gifted at writing kanji. So gifted, in fact, that upon leaving the hotel to go to the meeting, Daniel explained to the concierge desk that anything David wanted, he could have, as long as the writing was nearly perfect, and the waiter could understand what he wanted. David was worried when his parent hadn't shown up by 00h00. He knew _something_ had happened, but because he was deaf, signed Japanese, was in an unfamiliar country, he couldn't find what he wanted. He recounted to the director that he had remembered the four big letters on the building where his parents had worked and found the phonebook. He told her that he searched and searched in the foreign book to find four letters in a consecutive order, N-C-I-S. He then explained that he asked the room service man for maps to NCIS in this land's phonebook. After five minutes, David told Director Kouno, the man returned with directions written in Japanese. The child left the hotel. After he was done, he ran over to Gibbs, coming up only to his knee, grabbing it and with his green eyes and red hair looking up to Gibbs. All that was spoken by Agent Gibbs was a simple "Yes." Even the deaf child knew what word had been spoken as he reached up for Gibbs to pick him up and snuggled close in the breast of Gibbs' overcoat.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm as Mild and as Meek as a Mouse

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><p><em><strong>So I told you that the song "In My Own Little Corner" from R&amp;H's <span>Cinderella<span> had nothing to do with this story, it was true. But to have a little bit of fun, I think I'll pull lyrics as chapter titles that I think fits to the chapter. I greatly appreciate the raving reviews! The story is just a bit of drabble and I used the episodes where Gibbs have to save the parents of the children that come to him as the inspiration. As to the ASL/JSL connection, I know ASL and have several deaf friends so it's fun to use something that I know about. The characters that I create will try to live up to what their name means. I do hope that you enjoy this chapter!**_

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><p>Agent Yamato understood that as long as David was without his parents, he would have to go everywhere that the eight year old went, and that meant everywhere Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs went, not that Agent Yamato minded.<p>

When Gibbs' team sent in a report, it only needed a few i's dotted and a few t's crossed. His team had single-handedly proven their worth over the years, especially with the addition of Timothy McGee. Court was so simple Yamato didn't have to act crass and be his normal pleasant self. Everyone in Legal loathed it when Gibbs sent a file. Some law had been broken, so small rule infracted upon, some lie been told to get the confession, or the biggest one: the suspect was never properly mirandized, but Yamato was smart enough to use the other information in the files to convict even if something was slightly askew. So Agent Yamato considered it an honor to come home with him.

"Do I have to leave?" Tim whined and began to pout at Jethro. He didn't want to leave the kid. Well, that's what he kept telling himself.

"Yes, Tim. Agent Yamato is very homophobic and I don't want to scare him. He respect me, why else do you think he bowed to me? Now listen, Timmy, go back to your apartment, get some rest, and I'll see you in the morning at work, ok?" He looked into those green eyes of his lover, kissed him on the forehead, and bid him goodnight. As Tim left, Yamato came in with David and was signing to him. Whatever Isuma was telling David, he thought it was really funny, and Gibbs simply grinned.

Earlier that day, Gibbs had secretly asked Tim to obtain several files that concerned the small red-headed child.

"_Hey, Tim." Gibbs whispered softly in McGee's ear. "I have a request to ask of you." He said ever so coyly as to arouse his lover. And how did McGee LOVE to hear that soft, guttural, strong voice of his lover. All that McGee was able to do was sit there and look at the computer screen as his face slowly gave away the secret of what was happening just below his desk. _

"_W-W-what d-do you want, Jeth-B-B-Bo-Boss?" McGee stuttered. He was ok with having 30-seconds in Heaven with Jethro in the elevator when Jethro couldn't wait until they got home, but this was pure torture and he knew that Jethro was loving it..._

"_I need all the files from the all the agencies, including the CIA, on the boy's parents. He's Irish, I believe, just like you. I need FBI, ICE, ours, CIA, any and everything that even remotely mentions Daniel and Catherine MacAlswerth."_

"_A-A-Alright, Boss." With this, Jethro began to stand up and rub Tim's hair. "Hey, boss? What do I get out of all this work?" McGee knew as soon as the words left his mouth, he'd live to regret them. Jethro simply smirked and ruffled Tim's hair even more._

_What either one of them hadn't noticed was how red DiNozzo was getting._

"I'm sorry, Timmy, I'll have to pay you back some other night." He looked down at the four files, all of them not under 10 inches thick. _That is a lot of information to process through; I wonder if Yamato would want to help_, Gibbs thought as he walked upstairs. When he got upstairs, Gibbs had never thought that the agent from legal was good with children. He had recalled, from the cases he had to testify at, that Yamato was crass, hard, and downright loud. Gibbs liked him as a lawyer for the Agency, but to see the little boy sleeping on the couch that Tim had brought over two years ago with a calm, quite, and soothing man kneeling so he was eyelevel with David impressed Gibbs, and he realized just how hard that was. If you didn't know it, you would have thought that Gibbs had stopped out of awe as opposed to silence.

…

At McGee's apartment, it was bare. McGee locked the door behind him. He put his back against the wall and started to cry. As he slid down the door, all that he could think was the Jethro was ashamed of him. Tony was as homophobic as anyone could get, especially after Kate informed him that he was tonguing with Lt. Commander Voss. Tim knew that Gibbs wouldn't want to break it to the team _just_ yet. They had been dating for two years, breaking up after about 7 months. The only reason they got back together was McGee was, in fact, the one being super stubborn. Jethro had forgiven him and asked that they always talk out their problems; he even went so far as to say that, his refusal to talk was a problem and that they would work on things.

Things were going swimmingly until about 6 months after that when McGee was caught by Gibbs with another guy. He accused Jethro of seeing another woman and matters blew up for about a month before Director Shepard had a private talk with Gibbs at a bar one night, telling him that McGee is trusting but he did have a vindictive side. She asked Jethro just who was the other woman was. Gibbs told her that he was talking to the godmother of Kelly. She simply looked at him and said, "Well, then I think, for the safety of the entire building, please go make up with the boy. He does love you, you know?"

"Yeah, Jen, I know." replied Gibbs as he got up from the table.

So the question that remained was simple: Why did he not want Agent Isuma Yamato to know about their relationship?

Always prepared for an emergency, being the Scout that he was, Tim had a twin mattress and a metal frame stuffed into the closet and a second laptop at his apartment. McGee wiped the tears from his face and went to the bathroom to take a shower. _This is going to be a very_ long _night._

…

Gibbs walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer. "May I have one, Agent Gibbs?"

"Sure, and while you're at it, you can call me Jethro. There's no need to be so formal when I'm at home." Gibbs said with a smirk on his face.

"Thank you, Jethro." Yamato said, with a slight hesitance, as he picked a beer from the fridge. "Is there anything else, I can do to help you?"

"Actually, there is." Gibbs was at the door to the basement. "Come on!"

…

As the two men looked through the four files, Yamato looked up at Gibbs. "Where is he?"

"Who?"

"I believe his name is Timothy McGee. I noticed the TV in the living room, Jethro, and that does not fit your personality."

_Oh, crap! Somehow, Yamato had put 2 and 2 together._ "He's out with Agent DiNozzo, I believe. They and Ziva go out every so often and grab a few drinks and just enjoy the company." Gibbs said effortessly as he looked at the files.

"Forgive me, Agent Gibbs, I do not wish to be so crass to such a gracious host, but you, sir, are a terrible liar when you want. I saw him as he left; he looked hurt. The only time I've seen such hurt, well, let's just say, I had caused it."

"Heh. So you know, huh?"

"I knew from the case notes. I keep looking for a _Timothy_ or a _McGee_ but only found _Tim_. With Agent DiNozzo, it's always the same. With Officer David, you never call her _Ziva_, just David. After the five years that Agent McGee has been with you, it was two years ago that you started put _Tim_ in your reports."

"So tell me, have you found anything useful in the _files_? Or was this your chance to pyschoevaluate me? Cause I could always get that for free from Ducky."

"Actually I did, in the CIA files. 15 years ago, at the MacAlswerth/Byrne wedding, she had just been promoted to Ceannasaí, sorry, Commander."

"She was a part of the Irish Navy?"

"Well, if you don't like that, then you are going to _hate_ this: Her newly-wedded husband had just come from an assignment from, oh you're not gonna like this, Russia."

"So you mean to tell me that we had two SPIES working for NCIS!"


	3. Chapter 3

When I Hear a Command, I Obey

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><p><em><strong>Alright, I know that this chapter will confuse you very much. I apologize that it jumps from scene to scene, I just didn't stay on one scene without showing you all what was happening this night. And I apologize that it's a short chapter. I was trying to find a place to stop with the details of David's parents, and I realized that that is a lot of info to pour out, so I thought I'd put this up for you all and then put up the parental info later today. Also, I probably will update daily but if I don't, please don't be mad. I'm literally writing it out and then posting, plus I'm getting over strep throat... blah! Please R&amp;R and let me know what you think of this mini-chapter!<strong>_

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><p>*knock, knock*<p>

"Ugh…"

*KNOCK, knock*

"W'o…"

*Knock, kna, kna, knock, knock* *knock, knock*

"What do you want, DiNozzo? It's 2:30 in the morning!" McGee was furious. He had literally just gotten in bed, well, maybe an hour ago but still he was tired. Dealing with the pain of Jethro's seeming embarrassment had drain the man of all the energy he had.

"It's not DiNozzo…" Gibbs said loud enough so McGee could hear him but not loud enough to wake his neighbors.

McGee was at the door. He didn't even need to open the peephole to know who it was. He rested his forehead on the door, put his left on the door, and his right hand on the knob. He _really_ didn't want to see him right now…

…

"Hey, Ziva, have you noticed anything different about the team lately?" DiNozzo was blitzed. His reaction to alcohol was always different and this time it happened to be "loose mouth syndrome".

"What do you mean, Tony?" Ziva responded with a slight smile. She knew what he was talking about but honestly didn't care. Gibbs was like a father to her, McGee a brother, and whatever they did in their personal lives was their own business, not that she didn't mind seeing them together.

"I mean about the Boss and McGee. I noticed something really weird yesterday. Boss was talking really soft in McGee's ear, made McGee turn about 100 shades of red."

"There are 100 shades of red?"

"No! But that's not the point, Ziva. I think McGee has the hots for the Boss."

"And if he does, Tony? Are you mad that McGee likes the Gibbs, or are you simply jealous that McGee is getting the affections of Gibbs, as opposed to you? Being a green-eyed _master_ isn't very nice."

"Ziva, it's _monster_, _green-eyed monster_! And no! I'm not jealous!" Tony was wide-eyed and red as a beet. He wouldn't admit to Ziva, of all people, that he had a crush on his Probie. If he ever did fight for someone, it would be Tim, and in this case, he would have to face Leroy Jethro Gibbs for him-Something he knew that wasn't worth his time. He wanted to possess that geek everytime they had a stakeout-he'd get stuck with McGee and have to control his impulses. He remembered the only time McGee had made him speechless, and that was when he fell in love with the green-eyed man. So being a being a green-eyed _master_ wouldn't be a bad thing. The thought made him smile wickedly.

"Well, Ziva, I think I'm going home." Tony stated it as if it were fact.

Ziva grabbed his arm and pulled his body back down into the booth they were sitting in. "You are not driving, I can tell you that."

…

David woke up in the middle of the night from a cold sweat. His green eyes filled with terror. He ran around the house, searching for the only other person in the world he could talk to without having to write everything down. Agent Yamato was sleeping on Gibbs bed, on top of the covers, with an afghan over him. He heard the patter of David's socked feet and immediately got out of bed.

David had met the Agent at the door to the bedroom and grabbed his knee, standing there shivering from the fear that had filled his soul. Isuma reached down picked the boy up, placing him on the bed, and put the afghan over him. He walked into the bathroom to get a wet washcloth to cool David down.

…

As Tim stood against the fridge, with a cup of hot chocolate in hand, staring at Jethro-who was sitting on the other side of the counter partition of his kitchen, witha a mug of coffee in hand.

"So–"

"No! Jethro you don't get to do this to me. You, of all people, are the only person I have ever completely and fully trusted." Tim yelled at Jethro as he turned to the face the fridge. He didn't want to show his lover the tears that he had tried so hard not to shed again. "The only thing I want to know is why you are not proud of being in a relationship with me!"

With this, Gibbs looked down into his coffee. "I'm sorry, Tim." He said in a low, defeated voice.

"That's not an answer, Jethro."

Gibbs got up and walked over to his younger lover. He pulled Tim into his arms and turned him around. "I am proud of being with you, you know that. I was just trying to protect you from the hate. I'm older, it doesn't matter to me, I just didn't want anyone else giving you hell. I've seen people used as bargaining chips in deals that have ended with murder, and I didn't want to expose you to that. I was being selfish. You are the first person, male or female, since Shannon that I have been completely relaxed and willing to yield my life. I'm sorry that I hurt you tonight. Our relationship has been found out. Isuma mentioned that I've been using _Tim_ instead of _Agent McGee_ in my reports. He assured me that he hasn't exposed us to anyone because he has been requesting our case files since no one else seems to enjoy taking them." There was a moment of silence as those big green eyes looked up into the cold blue eyes, neither one saying a word. "So will you come home with me?"

"Ok." Tim said with a smile on his face. Jethro wiped away the tears and gave a gentle, but passionate enough tell the younger man that he wasn't embarrassed of him.

…

The Next Morning...

Vance looked out over the bullpen, it was 0900, and no one of Gibb's team was at their desks. He knew just how hard they worked so he wasn't exactly worried, just concerned for the child. He told assistant to call him as soon as Gibbs had come in. His wife, Jackie, had torn him a new one when he brought home three files. He knew that she hated him bringing work home, but this was a different story. After explaining to her what was going on, she apologized and offered to help with what she could.

To Be Continued Shortly...


	4. Chapter 4

But I Know of a Spot in My House

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><p><em><strong>Thanks so much to those of you who are continuing to read this story. As promised, here is the background information of both of David's parents. For the Irish names, I used the following website: . . Also, if you are in Ireland and reading this, please understand that I am not trying to be insulting. I was just using the IRA as a jumping point for the background of Catherine. As for Daniel's life, my father is from Botetourt (bot-a-tot) County and did attend VMI. The Sisters names are pronounced Íonait (EEN nit) and Áinfean (AWN f'yun). David's second name is Ánrothán (AWN ruh hawn). Please Review and let me know what you think please!<strong>_

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><p>After reviewing the FBI, ICE, and the NCIS files, Vance got a better understand of who the MacAlswerths were:<p>

Daniel was a first generation Irish of upper-middle class whose parents had come just before he was born. They came to America in 1959. A strapping young man that, even as a child, had the women fighting over him: tall, lean, fiery red hair with green eyes that proved his ancestry. With the move, his parents found a nice section of land, 40 acres, that they had bought and started to restart their farm. In Botetourt County, Virginia, the MacAlswerths had money, land, and a farm. Daniel would work the farm in the morning, go to school, and the finish helping his father with the remaining chores, and then finished his homework.

He did well in school: quarterback all four years of high school, drum major of the Marching Cavaliers for three years, and valedictorian of his graduating class summa cum laude. He went into the military at the age of 18, leaving his parents with his two brothers behind, but never forgot about them. He got a full scholarship to Virginia Military Institute for four years, again graduating as the valedictorian summa cum laude. He then transferred to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he would graduate salutatorian magna cum laude. Although displeased with himself at not being the valedictorian, his mother and father were both very proud of him. It was obvious by the comments in his file that his C.O.s enjoyed having such a well-disciplined and hard-working young man that was dedicated to serving his country. His physicals and Physical Performance Tests were spotless showing a steady increase in mental acuity and physical dexterity. It was noted by a Captain Raymond that MacAlswerth's mind loved solving puzzles and he had a gift at looking through deception. In his notes, Raymond told Daniel that he should apply for NCIS, since he was one of his best students in his Battlefield Tactics and Scenarios class. Daniel had appreciated the suggestion, but respectfully declined the offer, as it was his mission in life to fight for his country.

Daniel's first assignment was in Russia. Daniel was a linguaphile; he loved languages. By the age of 26, Daniel had mastered Russian, his native Irish, English, Japanese, Classic Latin, and Greek. He was a real aid to any battalion that the Navy could put him. He had had several offers from the CIA and FBI to come work with them, but Daniel refused. The year was 1985. His first mission was to help another vessel in his task force. The mission was an undercover operation of the CIA, and he just so happened to be tied up in it. His second mission was to help the Irish Navy with some training. It was during this mission that he met Catherine Byrne, a newly appointed Commander. During the year of training and various missions with the Irish Navy, the two Irish became very close to each other. Therefore, on August 15 of 1988, they were married.

He had done well throughout his military career; rising through the ranks and by the age of 40 had reach the rank of Rear Admiral before being granted an honorable discharge from the Navy. His mother was in failing health and his father wasn't able to take care of her. After a year of fighting cancer, she lost the battle and Daniel and his brothers, Zachariah and Nathan, buried her in the cemetery of the Catholic Church in their home town of Daleville. Her husband joined her only six months later. They were 79 and 85 respectively. It was after this, that Daniel realized that retirement sucked and needed something else to do. So, he went to NCIS in DC and applied.

Upon looking at his service record, there was no question that MacAlswerth would be a fine addition to the Agency. The Director asked Daniel if there was anywhere he would like to be stationed. "I would like to be stationed in Japan, sir. I have some friends who are stationed there. Nevertheless, the decision as to where I will be stationed at is completely up to you. Wherever you decide to station me, I'm sure I'll do my best, sir." The Director granted him his station at NCIS Osaka. He had been working there for 10 years with a 97% efficiency rate. If you watched him work, you'd think you'd be seeing Gibbs. He was hard on his team, but congratulated them when it was deserved.

* * *

><p>Cáitlín Ríona Byrne was born in Dublin. During her childhood, she was a rambunctious red head that had problems with rules. She ended up in prison numerous times for stealing food. What the local police never asked was why she was doing it. She had to younger sisters and no home. She had to take care of them. Upon turning 16, she became involved with the IRA. They helped take care of Áinfean, who was 12, and Íonait, who was 6. When Íonait was born, their mother died while giving birth to her. Their father, wasn't the greatest dad the universe had seen. He got his paycheck and went out to the local pub each night to pay off tabs, debts, and drink away the pain of his wife's death. Cáitlín was a beautiful woman; long red hair (with a temper to match) in natural curls, soft pale skin, dotted with freckles, full chest and curves that could tempt any man she wanted, but at the moment she wanted to protect and fend for her sisters. Cáitlín loved explosives; if it went "BOOM!" you could bet your bottom dollar she would know how to either construct or concoct it. While in prison for a bomb that had destroyed a factory (now mind you, it was empty at the time of the explosion) that was slave driving children to make sweaters, the recruiter for the Navy came in and offered her a chance to save herself and her family.<p>

She broke all ties to the IRA and went in to the Irish Navy at the age of 17. On her 27th birthday she was promoted to the rank of Commander. Upon her marriage to MacAlswerth, she decided that the best thing to do was leave home. Áinfean, now 24, was also in the Navy, doing well with her husband. However, it was Íonait's health that worried Cáitlín. Áinfean swore to Cáitlín that she would watch over their youngest sister and that Cáitlín should go to America with Daniel and start a new life as a wife. She did just that. She decided to start learning sign language since her mother had been deaf and there was a possibility that if they had a child they were going to have to teach the child sign language. Therefore, she took on the daunting task to learn all six sets of sign language that her husband spoke. They never knew where they would be with him so she had to learn fast. She became a U.S. citizen in 1998 and moved to Osaka with her husband the following year. She applied to NCIS as a translator and found that she would be accepted as an agent. She guessed knowing sign language in six language and her outstanding reviews of her C.O.s when she was in the Irish Navy had outshined her dark past with the IRA. She was grateful. She didn't want to work with her husband and the director wasn't going to do that anyway but Catherine (she started calling herself this since 1998) was very abrupt and upfront about it. Director Kouno was impressed with both of them and considered them valuable assets to the agency. Her team, as she was not a team leader, had a 90% efficiency rate.

In 2001, the MacAlswerth welcomed David Ánrothán Byrne MacAlswerth.

...

Vance was impressed with what the Agency had obtained in the MacAlswerths, but he was worried that they couldn't bring them back. Something in his gut was telling that their deaths were nigh.

…

…

In a basement, a 50 year old man was being asked for the file of case number 78264924-9685425A5. The shadow that was seen had two swords, one in each hand.


	5. Chapter 5

Where No One Can Stand In My Way

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><p><em><strong>Ok, so before you read this chapter, a few notes. 1st: The woman's codename came from watching too much of ABC's <strong>_**Once Upon A Time****._ 2nd: I'm not a McNozzo fan, but the drama sounds fun. 3rd: I haven't gotten Abby's character down just, so I apologize to any of you who like Abby. 4th: the second name of the Yamato's secretary is actually her first. She's a touch nervous and I had her introduce herself the way she would in Japan. Please review this chapter and let me know how I'm doing so far! Hope you enjoy!_**

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><p>"I don't even know *cough, cough* if there even exists such *cough* a file." The man, tied to a chair with leather, slowly told his captor. He had a remarkable memory, but he wouldn't know the number Legal puts on his case files.<p>

"Well, let's hope your wife has a better memory than you do." said a sharp, high-pitched voice. "She's having a little difficulty understanding what we're asking."

"NO! You bitch! You don't under–"

*SMACK*

"No one calls me a bitch. Not even you, MacAlswerth!"

"You *cough, cough* don't understand!" pleaded Daniel MacAlswerth. Although he had been cut deeply with both swords, no cut was a fatal blow. Each incision was slow and deliberate, something that would definitely arouse a sadist. "My wife *cough* she has been losing *cough* her hear for about 2 years now. She hasn't told her boss, and she *cough, cough, cough* *wheeze* begged me not to tell the Director, and, foolishly, I agreed."

Hopefully, his captor would be more lenient towards Catherine, now that she knew why she wasn't getting much response from his wife. "I'll try to tell you everything you need to know, but please…" He hated feeling so powerless. Daniel was the man who had an answer for every problem. If he, personally, didn't, he had enough resources to find any and everything anyone in need. The psychologist even went so far as to say that Mr. MacAlswerth had a hero complex. In addition, the position that Daniel was in proved even more that the psychologist was right.

"So, with whom do I have the _pleasure_ of _working_? I see you already know me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be bound and sliced…" Daniel said dryly.

"No, no, no, no, Mr. MacAlswerth. I know you better than you think I do. I'm not stupid enough to tell you my name. For now, you may call me Snow White." The woman said as she picked up her white coat. Daniel took in one final look of his captor. A size 1 waist, size D cup, hourglass figure, skin so white that "Snow White" was a fitting codename. The black evening dress that sculpted her body fit her as if it were painted on by Michelangelo himself. Whether the white hair was real or not didn't matter to Daniel, he could see that her heart was as black as the Evil Queen's, if we were going to continue with the fairy tale references.

"Snow White, before you go, may I make one statement, free of any retribution?"

"Yes, you may. I have somewhere to be, so make it quick, please."

"You really should change your codename to Cruella DeVille, it would fit you ever so much better." Daniel smile at his wit.

She looked at him with unrelenting disgust. A promise was a promise. She refrained from walking over smacking that annoying smile off the old man's face.

…

Back at NCIS, 1000 chimed and with its final chime, everyone of Team Gibbs was in the bullpen. McGee looked like hell. Gibbs had a red cheek with a slight hand imprint. Tony kept an ice pack on his head. Ziva was about to kill the computer. "McGee, would you please come over here and fix this PC. At Mossad, we used Macintosh. So much simpler. Apples are simpler to deal with than Windows, and much healthier, too." With the last remark, Tony shot her a confused look, but decided not to ask.

"Guys, we have a major problem." Gibbs looked at McGee and McGee looked right back. McGee jumped in the realization that Jethro wanted the family portrait on the plasma.

"We're not the only one…" muttered DiNozzo. Gibbs looked at him expecting him to repeat it, but when he didn't, Gibbs pointed over to the elevator. DiNozzo knew he was in trouble, but for the first time in his life he didn't care.

…

With the elevator stopped, Gibbs spoke flatly. "Do you have a problem, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo?"

As he backed up, removing the ice pack from his head, he spoke silently. "Yes. I know."

"You know what, DiNozzo?"

*Gulp*

A moment of silence was in that stopped elevator before DiNozzo answered. "About you and McGee."

"And is that going to be a problem with you?"

"Yes."

"And just why is that, Tony?"

Tony realized that Gibbs voice had turned personal. He could always distinguish between the tones in Gibbs voice for various occasions. "Because, Jethro, I like him, too."

"Well, I'm glad you like him, Tony. I love him. I love him almost as much as I loved Shannon and Kelly. So tell me, Tony, are we going to act like to immature brats falling in love with the same girl in high school? Or are we going to act like to adults and let the object of our affection choose the victor?"

"What about rule #12?"

"Well, I try my best, but sometimes, even I break one of my own rules."

"So, how does this work?"

"Meet me at Kobe's at 2100. I'll bring Tim and we'll have a discussion, as men–since we all are–should do. And just out of curiosity, how long have _you_ known?"

"About 5 months ago, when you and Tim about blew up the building with the looks you were giving each other."

Gibbs looked at Tony, his eyes soften, and he placed his head on DiNozzo's shoulder. DiNozzo just left things well enough alone, since within these four walls they weren't boss and underling but men with a shared object of desire. "Is it really _that_ obvious, DiNozzo?"

…

Coming out of the elevator, McGee found Jethro's eyes and saw just how heavy they looked. "Hey, Boss, Abby has something and wants the both of us. I'll show you what I found downstairs, as well."

They got into the other elevator and Tim fell into Jethro's arms. "I'm sorry for smacking you last night. I just got a little out of control."

"It's fine, Tim. I deserved it. I was being overprotective. Besides, apparently it's not as under the radar as I thought…"

"Who else knows? Anybody here at work?" Tim's green eyes almost came out of their sockets with this realization.

"Tony."

"Oh, great. He's been torturing me since I came from Norfolk."

"Well, he and I are at an impasse concerning you. So to settle things, we're all going out to dinner at Kobe's, that Japanese restaurant on the other side of the river. I'll, of course, bring David and Yamato… Have you seen either of them today, Tim?"

"No, I haven't. Why?"

"Nothing…"

…

Abby filled Gibbs in on the details of the formal Rear Admiral's phone records, credit information, and sundry things that she had needed to access. She mentioned that the phone hadn't made a phone call for a whole day.

Gibbs kissed Abby on the cheek at that news; this meant that the Rear Admiral was still alive. He asked Abby to trace the phone and left. He had other things on his mind.

"Boss, do you wanna hear what I found?" McGee questioned.

"In the elevator, I've got a phone call."

"Apparently, all that David had eaten was a large amount sweets in the hotel room. It's as if he'd never eaten the stuff. Six boxes of Butterfingers, 3 dozen doughnuts, 4 gallons of Rocky Road ice cream…"

"Oh boy, he's going to be sick. That's why they're not here."

Gibbs began to dial Yamato's cell. He had forgotten all about the Japanese man this morning. Well with everything happening, it was understandable. "Agent Yamato, how is David? Is he sick?"

"Gibbs, how did you… never mind. Yes, it appears that our little one has eaten too many sweets and not enough real food. He had a bad nightmare whilst you were over at Agent McGee's apartment. I took care of him. Do you have any plans to be home soon, Agent Gibbs? I have another case that goes to court in two days and I do need to prepare."

"McGee and I will be right over. Isuma, is there anyone else in your office, that you know, who can translate?"

"Jethro, there is a woman. She's been out of work for the past two weeks, sick with some virus; I believe she was schedule to come back to work today. I will have her meet you at 1545. Thank you very much for understand, Jethro."

…

Twenty minutes later, a young Asian woman stood before Agent Gibbs' desk. Tony looked her over and cursed over and over in his head. _How is it that Gibbs was able to get all the hot chicks?_ Ziva looked at Tony with a death glare so intent that DiNozzo thought he _would_ die just from the look.

"Suzuki Tsubame, Agent Gibbs, at your service." She was only 5' 1". She looked like she was still in high school. Straight black hair, a pair of small olive glasses sat on her face, a black skirt with a white blouse and a black suit jacket over it adorned her. She looked so scared. She had no idea why her boss, Yamato-san, had asked her to come before Agent Gibbs. The fact that he said, "Tsubame-san, would you please go to Jethro Gibbs in the next building and see if you can help him." didn't help her nervousness.

"I need you to come with me to my house. Tony, you, and Ziva are coming as well." Gibbs said flatly.

"Boss, what about me?" Tim said with disappointment in his voice.

"I don't have to tell you to come to 'my house'. You get to come home" Gibbs said with a touch of warmth in his voice. "Go fetch the rest of the team and bring them home, ok?"

"Sure thing, Boss!" McGee said with a huge smile on his face.

…

"Oh, Vance, I'm letting you know that I'm taking my team back to my house to meet David. I'd like it if you could come, too, so I can fill you in on some things."

"Sure, why not. We need to talk about him anyway. Better get it over with now than later." Vance said with a bit of a smile in his voice."

As Vance hung up, Gibbs found himself chuckling at the phone and saying "Sorry Vance, but I don't think you know what I'm talking about…"


	6. Chapter 6

In My Own Little Corner

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><p><em><strong>Sorry about the delay, folks. Had a busy day for the past two days and this chapter took forever to get written. I finally had to sit down and watch some NCIS just to get in the mood and this is the final project of three days worth of a chapter... It's a bit long, and for that I apologize, but I just couldn't find a decent place to end... I didn't even like where I ended it, but it just had to end there, and for that, I'm sorry. Anyhow, I'm exploring a love-triangle between the three men of NCIS, of course the fic will end with McGibbs but let me have a little fun, please? Please read and review and let me know how things are going. FYI, I know I need a betaReader, if anybody has a recommendation, I'm all ears. Also, I'll be going through and cleaning up the previous chapters...<strong>_

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><p>At Gibbs' house, the party had already started when Vance arrived. He wouldn't show up at Gibbs' house without any work-related business that needed to discussed. When he walked in, he saw what Gibbs must have wanted to talk to him about: Gibbs was kissing McGee. This was definitely not what Vance had in mind to talk with him about. As long as Gibbs was happy, Vance was happy because this meant that Gibbs was pacified and less apt to kill people.<p>

"Ahem."

Gibbs pulled out of the long kiss, keeping his eyes closed. "Vance, you had better have a damn good reason to interrupt me."

"Well, for one, Gibbs, the MacAlswerths aren't spies. Agent Yamato from Legal told me about your little explosion the other night. Secondly: Do you care to inform me what you were doing to Agent McGee?"

"What did it look like I was doing to him, Leon?" responded the agent. "I was exchanging a gift under the mistletoe."

"Well, as long as it was a gift…" Vance knew better. Vance had heard a story or two from Jenny Shepard, when she was alive and in charge, that Gibbs was dating McGee. It's not that he cared, he just wanted the truth. He figured he'd get it when everyone else would. "Could we discuss what you wanted so I can get home to Jackie and dinner?"

"I'm dating McGee. Is that going to be a problem, Leon?"

"No, as long as you two can handle keeping it professional at work–and that doesn't mean using the elevator as a place to make-out, understand?"

…

"Sure thing, Leon. Now, about the other problem. Leon, the MacAlswerths are spies. Daniel works for the CIA and Catherine works for G2. Dammit, Vance how could the Agency hired two spies?"

By this time the two of them had moved to the basement for a bit of peace and quiet from the party. They wanted to make sure that all information they had was correct before they shared it with the rest of the team.

"No, Gibbs, she doesn't. I asked the SECNAV to clarify that piece of information in her dossier and he verified that she has never worked for G2. Some of the ops that she had been on did have a hand in G2 affairs; but she, personally, never work for them." Vance stated clearly and definitely.

"And I can vouch for Vance that Daniel doesn't work for Langley." Kort spoke out of the corner of the basement.

"Who the hell invited you, Trent? I don't want your scum-ass anywhere near my house, especially near my agents, you got that?" Gibbs growled at the CIA agent.

"You just don't want me around Tony, Jethro. Be honest." teased Kort as he made his way up the stairs.

"Are you positive, Leon? I just don't want to be investigating the little boy's parents. That would hurt him. Oh, and Leon, I think I'm going to teach him ASL since he's in my custody, he's going to be in America, and we don't know many people who know JSL. Will that be ok with you, Leon?" Jethro said as he, too, turned to go upstairs.

"I think that will be fine. As long as you take responsibility when, or if, we find his parents." Vance said with a shake in his voice. He really did hope that Gibbs could find the boy's parents, but his gut didn't give him any hope.

"Just one more question, Leon: Just how familiar are you with Daniel and Catherine MacAlswerth?" Gibbs was hinting that he knew that the investigation might pan out the relationship between the three, but he would rather hear it from Vance now, rather than later from some scumbag.

"He was a good friend of mine in a op that I had to run when I was in LA. He's a good agent, Jethro. He would never betray his country."

Satisfied with the answer, Gibbs finished up the stairs.

Vance followed Gibbs back up to the party, only to leave shortly thereafter.

…

Back upstairs, the chime rang 2000. With the final chime, DiNozzo knew that he had a date with his boss and the love of his life in an hour and needed to go change. He bid his Probie good-bye, told Ducky, Abby, and Palmer that he had a date and wanted to spruce up a bit. Ziva knew something was going on, but decided against interrogating the Italian. Gibbs came up about five minutes after the final chime, and asked his guests to leave. Explaining that he and McGee had something planned that Vance had asked them to take care of, everyone decided that it was a bad enough lie to leave though.

"Jethro, I do hope that you would like to share the true nature of our early departure later this evening," Ducky prodded at Gibbs to tell him the truth concerning him and McGee. He had noticed Gibbs affection for the man the very first time McGee came from Norfolk. But to tell him he knew, that would hurt Jethro and push him further into his corner.

"Be sure to tell me what happens between you and the bossman, Timmy!" Abby slugged Tim one on his shoulder and all McGee did was wince.

"Ziva, aren't you going to say anything?" asked Gibbs.

"Why should I, Gibbs? If you are happy with McGee, I have no right to interfere in either of your happiness." Ziva responded as she turned around to look at Gibbs and settled into the crook of the door.

"Thanks, Ziva." Gibbs said as he gave her a kiss on the forehead. He treated her like his daughter. So McGee never got jealous when Gibbs kissed her on the forehead. "Now, good night. I'll see you in the morning."

…

Now that they were alone. Gibbs told McGee to be ready _in casual clothes_ within 30 minutes. They were going out to eat, his treat. "Hey, Boss-Jethro, where are we going? I wanna know just so I know how casual I can dress."

"We're going to a Japanese restaurant. Tony is going to meet us there." Gibbs said flatly, forgetting that Tsubame Suzuki was still in the house. She walked out of the kitchen with a glass of water and some _Children's Motrin_ for David, since his fever hadn't gone down all day. She nearly dropped the water when she walked into Agent Gibbs.

"Sorry, Agent Gibbs. I did not see you there." She said in a hushed voice that was obviously shaky.

"That's quite alright, Suzuki-san. I'm a bit of an oaf. I want to thank you for taking care of David tonight. I hope you have fully recovered from whatever made you sick. McGee and I should be home around 2200. Also, before I forget, how good is your English?"

"Thank you Agent Gibbs. My English is very good. I have been speaking English since I was 4. Why do you ask?" Tsubame replied.

"Well, I was wondering if you would like to help me teach David American Sign Language, since he's in America and we don't know where his parents are just yet. He should have at least one way to converse with people around him even if he can't hear. I think Yamato-san would agree, but I will ask him in the morning." Gibbs said as he moved from in front of the stairs so she could go nurse David. Tsubame bowed and continued up the stairs.

…

Dinner was silent, minus the chef grilling the food and the chatter of the other patrons at their table.

DiNozzo had decided with a Dolce & Gabbana black and white shirt, gray pants, and a black and white plaid double-breasted coat. He just sat there and ate, as he sat beside McGee. "So, DiNozzo, was there something that you wanted to tell McGee?" Gibbs asked to break the silence.

"Um… Yeah…" Tony turned from his plate to Tim. "Tim, I wanted you to know that I think…" He hesitated just for a slight moment. But in that slight moment, the words would be lost.

*ring, ring, ring*

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Gibbs, but we have a problem. We had a package sent to NCIS with no return address. There is a right index finger that belongs to Daniel MacAlswerth." Ziva bared the grave news.

….

"Damn!" Gibbs let out. He hated having parts of bodies sent to NCIS. It meant extraneous paperwork that Gibbs hated to do. "Tony, McGee, let's go. Got a body part back at work."

In the back seat of the car, Tony was grateful. He really didn't explain his feelings well, just like Gibbs. Everytime he tried to say something nice to McGee, it ended up in an insult.

"Don't think you've gotten out of this, DiNozzo," Gibbs said as he looked in the rear view, straight at Tony.

…

At NCIS, Gibbs rushed down to Abby, with McGee and Tony. "So, tell what you got Abby."

"Well, all I have a right index finger that is a 100% match to Rear Admiral Daniel MacAlswerth. But the interesting is the wear pattern on the finger: there is none. Most people who are single-handed, they have callouses along the side of the digit. The fact that he does proves that he is a true ambidextrous person. He's ambidextrous. There are only 3% of people of the United States who are truly ambidextrous!"

"Thanks, Abby." He said with a kiss.

"But wait, I'm not done. I can also tell you that he is sick, very sick. I can't tell you what's wrong, but I can tell you that he is very sick. I tried accessing his medical records but even I don't have clearance to access them, and I have Top-Secret level clearance. Something's definitely hinky, Gibbs."

"Fine, then. McGee stay here with Abby and try to hack into his medical records to see just how sick the Rear Admiral is. Let me know the minute you've gotten anything. I do not want any more body parts coming."

…

As Gibbs walked towards the elevator, Tony was right behind him. It was Tony this time that stopped the elevator. "Hey, Boss…"

"Yeah, DiNozzo?"

"I'm sorry. I got jealous and I had plenty of times to tell McGee before you started to date him. You win." Tony said with a defeated voice. He was going to be a big boy this time and cut his losses before he got too emotionally involved.

"I gave you three years."

"What, Boss?"

Gibbs moved real close to Tony and shifted his head to the right. Gibbs was holding everything back not to punch DiNozzo.

" I said 'I gave you three years'. I saw how you looked at him the very first time. I waited and waited for you pounce on the kid… When you didn't, I took my chance and found something so special, so, sweet. It might have been all those movie references or your 'open-mouth-insert-foot' problem that turned him away from you. It could be the fact that you ride him constantly, relentlessly, maliciously, and you show no second thought about it. I don't know, but I know this: I love Tim and I will fight whomever I need in order to keep him. Do you understand, Tony?"

*GULP* "Yes, Gibbs. I understand. I had my chance; I blew it." Tony said with a click and whirl of the elevator starting back up.

…

Back upstairs in the bullpen, Ziva had seen Tony's tail between his legs. "Hey, Tony, after work would you like to go out for drinks?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Somebody tell me has some more information concerning the MacAlswerths before they are dead!" Gibbs yelled.

"Gibbs, I've been going through his phone records. They show that his private cell called the same number 10 times within the day he and his family arrived here in D.C." Ziva proclaimed. "The number belongs to a Ms. Savannah Winters." Just then, a photo of a voluptuous woman with black hair pulled back in a ponytail appeared on the plasma.

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall–" started Tony, was his usual banter whenever he saw a very sexy woman.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at DiNozzo, but let him continue with is his banter. Out of the corner of the eye, Gibbs saw McGee, in his khakis and a blue striped polo shirt, coming up to his desk. "Hey, Boss, we found something. In Catherine's email account, she had been in contact with a Daigh Moore in Ulster, the northern providence in Ireland. Catherine was from Leinster, the eastern providence. The emails stated that Moore wanted to meet Catherine, Daniel, and David in D.C. earlier this week. I think, Boss, that this Daigh Moore fellow is somehow related to Catherine because the emails are extremely personal but not explicit. I already found out that he is staying at _The Liaison Capitol Hill_. Should I pick him up, boss?"


	7. Chapter 7

In My Own Little Chair

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><p><em><strong>Hey, guys! Thanks for the wonderful reviews! I'm just working out some kinks right now in the plot... Thought I'd introduce you to a more case related chapter. I know that's what I promised and the past few haven't but this one is, I promise! Forgot to mention that Daigh is pronounced <strong>_**DEI ****_last chapter_, _For this chapter: col ceathar means cousin, and buachaill means boy. Please Read and review guys! It makes my day, and I'm glad y'all are enjoying the story!_**

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><p>"Well, no, McGee, we're just going to let Daigh Moore stay here without meeting his guests, since it's obvious that he never met Catherine or Daniel last week."<p>

"Alright, I'll go get him."

"And take DiNozzo with you."

"Ten-four, Boss," Tony said with a sigh. He knew this was punishment. He might as well get things over and done with concerning McGee. He knew the sooner he got his feelings out in the open, the sooner he could feel better.

…

"Are you sure it is wise to send DiNozzo with McGee, Gibbs? I mean Tony's not the most trustworthy person I know…," questioned Ziva

"I trust him to do the right thing, Ziva. If I didn't I wouldn't have sent the two together. Not to mention, something in my gut is telling me that McGee will need DiNozzo's help catching this Daigh Moore fella." replied Gibbs.

…

In the car, Tony was making some random movie quote while Tim was trying his best to focus on finding the hotel. "Tony, please stop with the movie reference and help me find _The Liaison Capitol Hill_. I think…"

"It's over there on the right, across the street, up the street from the bar." Tony responded, cutting Tim off.

"Thanks, Tony. Listen, I'm sorry about whatever Jethro put you up to tonight. He has been acting really weird lately and I don't seem to understand it. It's like there's someone else who likes me, but…"

"Uh, yeah, hey, did you just call Boss 'Jethro'?

"Yeah, Tony. I always call him that when I'm with him. He doesn't like me to call him 'Boss' when we're alone together. What did you expect me to call him?"

They were heading into the lobby of _The Liaison_. A young man was sitting behind the desk. He was in his early 20s with dirty blonde hair with a beard that was turning red; it was well kept and trimmed. He smiled at the two men as they walked in. McGee walked over and placed his elbow on the front desk. Tony stood in front of the young man, and practically laid down on the front desk, pushing McGee aside.

"Hey, there…" Tony looked at the nametag "…Jonathan, I'm Anthony DiNozzo. This is Tim McGee. NCIS; Naval–"

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I know. I've been doing a report for my police science class. I did my report on one of the underappreciated agencies in the country." He spoke with a slight southern drawl. He flashed a smile at Tony.

"Oh, so you know about us?" asked Tim

"I sure do, Agent McGee. I think that you all should make your presence known more because y'all are just too cool for words." He flashed Tim the same smile he had shown Tony.

"Are you flirting with us, Jonathan?" Tony asked.

"And if I were, it wouldn't be a crime. Besides, I'm a natural flirt; I flirt with everybody, A-gent Di-No-zzo." Jonathan responded. "Now, I have a question for the two of you: Why are you here? I don't have any DiNozzo or McGee scheduled for a reservation, so you must be here because of one of the guests that is staying here."

"You're smart, Jonathan. You're exactly right. We're here to see if a Daigh Moore checked in. We need to talk to him." Tim replied to the young man behind the desk, showing him a photo of the Irish national with a pronounced widow's peak amongst his brown hair. He had a scar that extended from the left nostril at a 45-degree angle, two missing teeth: the upper left canine and lower left lateral incisor.

"So, Jonathan, what would his room number be?" retorted Tony, trying to get the attention off McGee and back onto him.

"Well, A-gent Di-No-zzo, if you would have said please… He's in room 406. He arrived last Thursday and will be leaving tomorrow morning, Friday. Anything else I can get for y'all, suga? Maybe a room for y'all two?" Jonathan said with a devilish smile, making the two agents shift uncomfortably.

"No thanks, Jonathan. We're not seeing each other." Tony said as he followed McGee up the stairs, guns drawn, flashing a smile back to the young man behind the desk.

"Yet." Jonathan added as he saw the smile and the agents disappear behind the wall and door.

…

In room 406, Daigh Moore was lying asleep on the king bed that was in his room.

He heard the knock on the door in his sleep, woke up instantly, and cocked the gun that was underneath the pillow. "Cé atá ann?"

"FEDERAL AGENTS, OPEN UP!" Tony said, knocking on the door.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming!" Daigh Moore opened the door to see Agents McGee and DiNozzo. "What do the Feds want from me?"

"Drop the gun, Moore!" McGee said in a harsh voice. "We don't want to hurt you, just ask you a couple of questions."

Moore, having more than one run-in with the law, knew that the best thing to do was to drop the gun. "Alright, I'm putting me gun on the floor." Daigh spoke in a heavy brogue. He put his hands in the air to show that he no longer had the gun and kicked it towards the two agents. "Anything else, buachaill?"

"What were you doing corresponding with Catherine Alswerth? And why were you planning on meeting her here in D.C.?" Tim asked cautiously.

"Well, buachaill, she's me cousin and I wanted to meet that bastard who took her from the family. I also heard that she had a little one and wanted to meet me family. Not to mention, I wanted to warn her that IRA has a price on her head before she set foot on Irish soil again. Since you don't see me as a threat, you mind if I put my hands down?" replied Daigh.

McGee looked at Tony and looked back at Moore. Tony was the one who responded. "Alright, but no sudden moments." A look of caution was thrown to his partner and then his full attention was back on Daigh.

"So, when did you come here, Daigh? May I see your passport?" Tim asked the Irish man, trying not to insult him with the questions. In response, Daigh got up of the bed slowly and put his bag on the bed in front of DiNozzo.

"I came to America on Tuesday. I checked in on Thursday, and waited for Catherine to call to meet me at some fancy restaurant that Daniel had made reservations."

"Do you remember the name of the restaurant?" Tim prodded.

"I think it was _Ray's the Steaks at West River_. It was a pretty fancy steakhouse." replied Daigh

"It's _at East River_." corrected Tony.

"By the way, I don't believe I caught your names, Agent…" inquired Daigh

"I'm Tony DiNozzo. He's Tim McGee. NCIS."

Daigh was sitting on the bed after DiNozzo had searched his bag and produced his passport. McGee found the passport not to be a fake, well as far as he could tell.

"Daigh Moore, I would like to ask you to come to NCIS with us. To ask you a few more questions. You are not under arrest, but we would appreciate it if you come with us." stated Tony.

"Of course, anything I can do help you find col ceathar Cáitlín."


	8. Chapter 8

I Can Be Whatever I Want to Be

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><p><em><strong>The chapters are becoming beasts to write! A way to keep y'all engaged is a challenge and I am certainly loving it. I hope this chapter explains how Daigh knew his cousin was missing in a sufficient form. The reason I've been using Snow White and associated characters is because I've fallen for ABC's <strong>_**Once Upon A Time****..._ Also, the French in the first dialogue will be translated by Blanche-neige (Snow White). Please read and review!_**

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><p>A phone call was placed as soon as the Irish man left the hotel. "Nous avons une problème, Blanche-neige. NCIS a trouvé le petit oiseau rouge."<p>

"What problem do you speak of, my huntsman? They finally found the red bird? It's about time." The woman known as Snow White said to the man of the phone. She pulled it away from her mouth for a moment. "MacAlswerth, I think you do a better job in Osaka than the main people here in D.C. This is rather disappointing."

She put her phone back up to her lips. "Keep me updated on the position of my little red bird."

…

Back at NCIS, McGee was in the elevator with Gibbs for a little personal time.

"Jethro, Tony's acting weird." Tim said as he was hugging Jethro. The past few days had been very tumultuous and he hadn't gotten to spend much time with his lover, but plenty of time with his boss.

"He's fighting a few things, Tim. Me, being one of them." He said this as he kissed McGee's forehead. "Have you heard anything from Tsubame-san? She's hasn't contacted me all day. Why don't we take lunch together and go back home to check on David and Tsubame-san?"

McGee's ears perked up at the thought of this. Lunch with Jethro would pull him out of this little slump. "Sounds good to me, Jethro." McGee said with a smile.

…

They went to a little deli that Gibbs had been wanting to take Tim for some time now. It wasn't that he had been delaying; Gibbs just wanted to use it as a special pick-me-up and he thought this was the perfect time. They hadn't seen much of each other and he had been hard on Tim, leaving him downstairs with Abby…

"So what do you think, Tim?" Jethro said with a little smirk.

"Of what, Jethro?" Tim said with his mouth full of the club sandwich he was eating.

Jethro laughed, knowing that Tim was enjoying the time together, as was he. "We need to hurry up and get home. We need to check on Tsubame-san and Daniel. I feel bad for forgetting about them today." He motioned for the check and the waitress brought an extra salad and hamburger with fries for his guests. After he left the waitress a reasonable tip, he and Tim got in the car with the food.

"Say, Jethro, what are we going to do for Christmas, it is just a few days away. The house isn't decorated, there isn't a tree in the living room, and we haven't even put up the lights outside!" inquired Tim of his lover. McGee was one of the most festive people Gibbs had ever dated; the pure elation that Tim got from doing the little things was something that delighted Jethro to see.

"We'll put it up tonight, I promise. But right now we got to get home and check on Daniel. He's been very sick and I don't like that."

…

At home, Tsubame Suzuki was trying to explain to Daniel that Gibbs would be home when he could. Daniel had been very defiant with her. "Yamato-san, said you were a very pleasant boy and very cooperative; wherever he got that notion, I'll never know." She spoke to herself as she was trying to wrangle the child into her arms.

*knock, knock*

"I wonder who that could be?" she pondered aloud. She opened the door and there was Gibbs and McGee standing there with food. "Agent Gibbs," she said as she bowed, "what are you doing home so early?"

The question was warranted and the response was simple. "I figured you and Daniel were hungry, so we picked up some food for the two of you. Where is the little rascal?" Gibbs said with a smile.

"He's definitely being a little rascal, Agent Gibbs. He won't listen to me and keeps asking for you or Yamato-san. I simply don't know what to do with him."

At that moment, Daniel walked into the living room and saw Gibbs. He ran to Gibbs and hugged his knee. McGee got down on his level and handed him the food. Agent Suzuki started to sign to Daniel that it was hamburgers and fries, but he simply looked away from her to Gibbs. Gibbs, being no stranger to kids' attitudes toward authority, looked at him with a stern look on his face that read, "You better pay attention." With this stare, Daniel looked down, defeated, and returned his attention to Agent Suzuki. She told him that Gibbs and she would begin teaching him American Sign Language so that he could converse here in America. She also told him that he would be spending the weekend with Agent Gibbs at home unless something concerning his parents came up. She told Daniel that Gibbs also said that he should listen to her because Agent Yamato was working on a case and she was his subordinate. That seemed to have an effect on Daniel.

With the child behaving and eating, Gibbs was going over the case with McGee when Agent Suzuki walked in.

"I heard that you are dealing with Savannah Winters. She is very dangerous. Yamato-san has been trying for three years to connect to her to the death of a Lance Corporal Simon Vega, but the trail ran cold two years ago." She interrupted the two men. Gibbs wasn't too thrilled to learn that a person of interest in his case was a prime suspect in another.

"Would you mind sharing the details of the case with us, Agent Suzuki?" Tim inquired. "I'm sure that would help us with our case."

"I can get my office to deliver the case files. Would that be alright with you, Agent Gibbs?" She inquired of Jethro.

"That will be alright. The more eyes we have on this case gives us a better chance to find his parents alive." Gibbs stated.

…

Back at NCIS, Ziva was talking to Daigh Moore in the bullpen, while he was stuffing his face full with pizza. "So, Daigh, tell me just how you knew that something had happened to your cousin Catherine."

"Well, Officer David–"

"It's Da-veed," corrected Ziva.

Sorry, Officer Da-veed, as you see in my file, I've had a couple run-ins with INTERPOL. But I've gone straight and I'm a private investigator now. Thought I could put my criminal behavior to good use. I had received a call from Cáitlín on Wednesday around…" he paused, trying to remember, "12:30 that afternoon, she sounded excited to see me, although I could hardly wait to meet her husband." He continued very dryly.

"You were not a _groupie_ of her husband, I take it." Ziva said as more of a statement than a question.

"Fan, he wasn't a _fan_ of her husband, Ziva," corrected Tony with an exsaperated sigh. "Please continue, Daigh."

"Well, no, I didn't like him. But she loved him, and that was all that mattered to me. I could put up with his bullshit, but I warned him that if he ever laid a wrong hand on my Cáitlín, he'd be dead." The reaction that the two federal officers gave Daigh knew that didn't help him at all. So he continued, "I got to the restaurant early. The reservation was for eight that Thursday evening. I was there at noon, staking out the place."

"Well, when McGee and I found you, you couldn't even remember the name of the restaurant. How did you manage to stake out a place you didn't even know the name?" Tony pressed.

"It was a fancy steakhouse. I hate steak. Why would I _want_ to remember the name? For your information, I had to call Cáitlín twice to make sure the name of the restaurant before I left the hotel. The young man behind the desk was kind enough to print out directions. Honestly, give me some haggis and I'll be fine. But I was trying to play nice for me col ceathar… It was rude that they didn't even bother showing up. I thought they had mixed up the dates and thought the reservations were for Friday, she had the tendency to be a bit out of touch with reality sometimes when she was younger. So, I went back the next night at eight, talked to the host, and he did confirm that the reservations were in fact for Thursday night at eight. After that, I decided to call Cáitlín, but her phone went straight to voicemail. Something that never happens when she is on personal time, which is the only time I get to hear her voice. I know better than to call her, but if she calls me, then it's always been safe to assume she's on personal time."

While Daigh was talking, Ziva was shuffling back and forth between the papers of the phone records for each party, verifying the time codes on the calls, all of which checked out.

"So, why stay for almost an entire week, Mr. Moore? You could have simply left and gone back to Ireland," Ziva inquired.

"I had to find her. The last time I talked to her on the phone, she had mentioned that the phones wouldn't be safe. She had assumed that someone had tapped her cell and she started to send me emails, coded emails at that. The emails were what tipped me off as suspicious. I understood her job had safety concerns, so she tended not to use the phones. At first, I thought she was just being paranoid, but she stopped sending me emails for a while. And then two weeks ago, she started them back up, in the same paranoid, coded messages. I also had to find her son, she had told that he is deaf and he's here in D.C. without any protection. I just wanna–"

"David is safe. He is with my boss. He can't be any safer."

…

"Well, MacAlswerth, it seems that NCIS has picked up your cousin, Daigh." Snow White pulled her finger down Daniel's left cheek. The man's breathing was labored. Snow White's questions had proven harder to answer than he imagined.

"May I *gasp* call someone? *gasp* I'm sure *gasp* I can get you that file." begged Daniel. He had never been one to bargain with criminals but he was in extreme pain and he needed to go to the hospital.

"Well, it's about time you decided to cooperate." She turned to one of her henchmen. "Release him long enough for him to make the phone call."

Daniel was given a phone book and a cell phone. "Hello, Dispatch, may I please I please speak with the Major Crimes Response Team. This is Agent Daniel MacAlswerth."

"Of course sir, right away."

…

The dispatcher connected him to Agent DiNozzo's desk while she connected herself to Director Vance's line directly. "We have a problem, sir. Forgive me for bypassing your secretary, sir, but I thought that you would like to know that Agent Daniel MacAlswerth is being connected to Agent DiNozzo's desk."

"Thank you, Belinda, for that information."

At that moment, Vance called the Cybercrimes unit to start a trace on Tony's phone.

…

"_This is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. How may I help you?"_

"This is Special Agent *gasp* Daniel MacAlswerth. I need NCIS *gasp* to look into a special file *gasp* that is currently under my command *gasp* in Osaka."

…

_Just then, Tony's cell went off from a text it received._

_KEEP HIM TALKING, WE'RE TRACING!_

_Vance_

From that moment, Tony knew he needed Gibbs and his Probie there with him. "Alright, MacAlswerth, what is the case file number?"

"_It's 78264924-9685425A5."_

"By the way, don't worry about David. My boss has him at his house. He's as safe as he can be."

"_Thank you. That is all."_ With that, MacAlswerth closed the phone.

"Get ahold of Gibbs and Probie, Ziva. That was MacAlswerth on the phone. Tell him we have contact. I've got to go to Probieland and see what his geeks have for me on a trace."


	9. Chapter 9

On the Wing of My Fancy

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><p><em><strong>MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is the last update before Christmas! I'm trying to pick up the pace on the story. While in the real world, Christmas will come and pass, it's still three days before Christmas in the story. I'll have Gibbs and McGee put up some decorations and a tree, just in time for Christmas. Also, I'll have some goody McGibbs action, a few moments of weakness with a McNozzo moment and a LeroyTony fight... I will include background info on Savannah Winters within the next few chapters... Please read and review! I do so enjoy this story and those of you who are enjoying it as well :)**_

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><p>"<em>Gibbs, I am sorry to disturb you, but Tony just got off the phone with Daniel MacAlswerth. He told me to call you and McGee. I assume that he with you? If not–"<em>

"Uh-huh, he's _with_ me, Ziva. We'll be there shortly. Where is DiNozzo, Ziva?" Gibbs interrupted Ziva for interrupting him with Tim.

"_Oh my! I'm sorry, Gibbs. Tony is downstairs in Cybercrimes. The Director had them initiate a trace since you two never returned from lunch. Also–" Ziva said in a hurry, blushing._

"I said we'd be down there in a bit." Gibbs interrupted Ziva for the second time, disconnecting the call by closing the cell phone.

"Do we have to go in _right now_?" Tim looked down at Gibbs' hard member. "The guys in Cybercrimes are very good, well…"

"Unfortunately, we do, Tim." Gibbs looked down at Tim, naked as a jaybird in his bed. He kissed Tim passionately and ruffled his hair. "And no, they're not as good as you." Jethro went ahead to say what Tim was thinking just to make him blush.

"We don't ever get to have personal time anymore, Jethro," Tim complained as he was putting on his clothes.

"Well after this case, I'll take you camping, just the two of us. I've got plenty of personal days stored up. And I know for a fact you do too, Tim." Jethro said as he finished brushing his teeth. "Agent Suzuki!"

"Yes, sir? You called?" responded the Legal aid as she bowed.

"Please get David and bring him with us. His father made contact with us. I need him to come to NCIS." Jethro said with a touch of compassion in his voice. He had forgotten just how intimidating his gunny voice was to others.

"Yes, sir." Tsubame Suzuki replied.

…

In Probieland, as DiNozzo was so prone to call it, the geeks were scrambling around at the prospect that their boss's partner was coming to visit. DiNozzo hated visiting this place, especially without McTranslator. He never understood what McGee had said, but it was definitely easier to understand than having to talking to Cybercrimes without him. _Why didn't the Director have Abby trace the call? Oh, wait, she left around 17h00, while Ziva and I were interviewing Daigh, that's right. Damn it! __Where's Tim when you need him. Shit! I just called him Tim. Why do I do such stupid stuff? Ya know, even Kate was right!_

Before he had realized it, Tony was in front of the door to Cybercrimes. He took a deep breathe, and pushed the door open. _This is going to be torture! Well, here goes nothing…_

"So, which one of you trolls has my trace?" DiNozzo inquired

One young man–being the definition of nerdy: wearing corduroy pants and jacket with a striped red shirt underneath and bottle cap glasses, brown curly hair that looked like the man just woke up (even though it was 20h00)–came up to Tony, wringing his hands out of nervousness. "Here is the information that you are looking for, sir." He said nervously as he handed the CD in the case over. "I-i-is it true?"

"Is what true, Agent Callahan?" Tony responded.

"I-i-is it true of Boss? Is he, ya know?" Agent Callahan said with a limp wrist.

"Get a grip, man! Does it matter if he's gay? Actually, to be correct, he would be bi, but that doesn't matter." Tony responded as if he were the one being insulted. An automatic head-smack went to the pondering agent.

"Sorry, I was just wondering if the rumors were true. I never figured him to be one." Callahan responded while rubbing the back of his head.

"It's not a disease, you dumbass! Thanks for the trace, I got work to do." Tony said as he stalked out of the division. Tony could feel his blood pressure rising, and he didn't really know why. Well, he did. The way Callahan was talking about Tim was pissing him off. But it was pissing him off because he had once made fun of McGee and the rise in his blood pressure was from guilt not from being mad, which was making him even madder. That had decided it. _I'm going to apologize to Tim and I'm going to fight for him! I don't care that I have to go up against Leroy Jethro Gibbs! I will make it known to Tim that I love him. Even if it kills me that he will choose Gibbs, I will take him out once._

…

Back up in the bullpen, Gibbs and McGee were about to Daigh. "McGee, do you remember the name of the clerk that you and DiNozzo talked with when you picked him up?" pointing to Daigh.

"I sure do. Why, Boss?" replied McGee.

"Good, I want you to do a full background check on him."

"On it Boss."

…

As they were talking, Daigh was content with holding David. He rubbed their noses together and a smile appeared upon the little child.

"Agent Suzuki, do you know if Agent Yamato–"

"Is still in?" finished Agent Isuma Yamato. "Agent Gibbs, I heard that you were inquiring about a Savannah Winters. I just got a guilty verdict with a day's preparation, thank you all so much for the work that you do. I also hear that you are beginning to teach him ASL. How is the translation going, Tsubame-san?"

"Very good, sir." replied Agent Suzuki.

"Well, I've taken the next few days off. I would like you to stay with me as we attempt to help Agent Gibbs undergo this teaching experience. I think the two of us could benefit," continued Yamato.

"Very well, Agent Yamato. I would be delighted to help you. Ziva, where is that DiNozzo? He's supposed to have that trace information."

…

In Vance's office, Vance was pacing around and about the room. What was the word? Had that truly been Daniel calling? It would be best if he went downstairs and helped Team Gibbs.

…

Tony finally came back up to the bullpen and gave the disk to McGee. McGee put the disk in the computer and started his computer magic. He put up the location of the trace of the cell phone on the plasma. Glen Echo, Maryland.

…

Tony looked at Gibbs and motioned his head to follow him. When they were behind the stairs, Tony started, "Do you trust him, Boss?"

"Who, Daigh? Everything he said checked. I trust Ziva's decisions. He was honest about his INTERPOL file. I trust him…some. But keep an eye on him Tony."

With this, the two men went to rejoin the group.

…

"McGee, can you get to the street level origination of the call?" questioned Tony.

"Let me see. The call originated on Annan Drive, at 15978 Annan Drive." replied the tired young man.

Just then, Gibbs' desk phone started to ring.

*ring, ring* *ring, ring*

"Yeah, Gibbs."

"_Would you like to explain why you and McGee took the rest of the day off without telling me?"_ asked Vance on the other side of the phone.

"We didn't take the rest of the day off, sir. Agent Suzuki, Tim, and I were discussing the case as Tim and I took food back to her and David. Her office has been dealing with our only suspect for the past two years with the death of a Lance Corporal Simon Vega. We spent the afternoon reviewing her case files with her at my house," explained Gibbs quietly, as not to disturb the rest of the team.

"_Well you should have called and let me know what you were planning. I've been wondering were McGee was so he could to the trace. When I found out that Ms. Sciuto had gone home for the day, I had to call Cybercrimes to do the trace."_ Leon continued to lecture Gibbs.

"Yes, sir, it won't happen again. By the way, the call came from a residence in Glen Echo. Just thought you might want to know." Gibbs said as he hung up on the Director.

"Who was that, Boss?" inquired Tony.

"Vance, lecturing me that I shouldn't take McGee home in the middle of the day in case a trace is needed." answered Gibbs.

"Ziva, I want you to dig up everything you can on this Savannah Winters. It seems that she is an important person with Legal and may or may not know the MacAlswerths. Tony, I want you to help Ziva and bring over every bit of information to my house. McGee, you're coming with me. I want you all to be at my house by 07h00 in the morning with everything you find, and bring your appetite. Agent Yamato, would you and Agent Suzuki come over with your files as well."

"Agent Gibbs, what about me and David?" asked Daigh.

"You are going back to your hotel room with protection. I have a bad feeling that you are still in danger while here in town. I will give custody of David to you–_since you are a blood relative_–, but you will need a translator. Agent Yamato will provide one for you." Gibbs conceded quietly.

"Buíochas a ghabháil leat as do chabhair go léir. Thank you for all your help!" exclaimed Daigh.

As McGee got in the elevator, Jethro pulled him close and gave him a long kiss. "We're going to go home and finish what we started." Jethro whispered in Tim's ear before continuing to kiss him.

"But, Jethro, *kiss* what about that *kiss* background check?" Tim questioned breathlessly between each kiss.

"You're a good enough hacker…"

And with that, it was about ten minutes before the elevator was working. Gibbs really liked to kiss Tim. Those big, pouty lips simply begged to be kissed during the day and Gibbs had to keep in control of his passion.

After ten minutes, Gibbs had left a matching set of hickeys on the pale skin of his lover. He knew that he had better get Tim home before people got too suspicious, not that he cared.


	10. Chapter 10

I Can Fly Anywhere

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><p><em><strong>Alright, as promised a bit of McGibbs goodness. A few new characters. This ended up a bit longer than I felt comfortable with what Ziva and Tony are going to find in Savannah Winters' past (it was over 3,000 words and I hadn't even finished the chapter...) I'm sorry that it took me so long to update, personal drama, ugh... but I should have the second half of this chapter up either later today or tomorrow. Thanks to all those who have faved and alerted the my story. It makes my day. Please R&amp;R!<strong>_

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><p>Tim had barely gotten through the door before Jethro attacked him. Grabbing at the younger man's coat to take it off, Jethro was in full heat, pushing Tim up against the closed front door while forcing his tongue into Tim's mouth. "Jethro…"<p>

"What, Tim?"

"We have to put up the Christmas decorations like you promised, remembered?" Tim said with innocence, trying to get out the assault that was coming upon his body.

Jethro growled, knowing that the assault he had planned for Tim was being diverted, but he was a man of his word. "Alright, fine. I'll go get a tree. You go find the trim, the ornaments, and the lights." He planted a long kiss on Tim and unbuttoned three buttons before Tim swatted his hands away and shooed him out the door.

In the car, Jethro let out a curse so loud he was sure Tim could hear in the house.

Back in the attic, Tim started to go through the boxes with writing on them. He had put the Christmas stuff in a box that read "DO NOT OPEN TIL CHRISTMAS". It always offended him when he saw "XMAS" so he always put "Christmas" on the decoration boxes. He found them in about 10 minutes of going up there. He was on his way down when he remembered that Jethro had wanted everybody over at 07h00, which meant he was going to do something about the matching hickeys that Jethro had given him in the elevator earlier that evening.

…

About an hour later, Jethro had returned to the house with a tree it was about 6'5" with a nice, strong apex to put a ~shining star upon the highest bough~. His mind always liked finding the perfect line from a song to express himself a little better. He was like DiNozzo in that way. He noticed the Nativity scene that Tim had bought their first Christmas together was already up in the front yard. But he did notice that the Baby Jesus was missing, as well as the three wise men. He was going to say something, but decided to ask for call Tim for help. "Hey, Tim, I'm outside with the tree. Would you mind coming out and helping me bring it in?" He didn't mind the cold, but he sure wasn't going to stand outside more than was necessary.

Tim agreed and rushed outside to see Jethro sitting in the cab of the truck at the end of the driveway.

*BANG*

McGee was on the ground, behind the tree in the front yard, gun in hand. He hadn't seen a flash, but he was trained enough to not give into assumptions. Every light in the neighborhood went on as the sound resounded.

"Damn truck!" cursed Jethro, as he hit the dashboard. "Sorry, Tim! This damn thing has been backfiring on me all damn night!"

With this statement, out came the neighbor across the street, Mr. Derek Greer, an older man in late 50's, slightly overweight with a small frame and greying hair, always loved helping Jethro with any fixer-uper projects he endeavored. He had a lovely wife of 54 years and his three sons were visiting with their wives and children for Christmas. Derek had been the first one in the neighborhood to welcome McGee when he started to live with Jethro. Derek's youngest son, Aaron, had been killed because he was gay and he didn't want anything to happen to Tim, not that Jethro would let that happen. He had told Tim the very first time he had met him that he was always welcome at his house, in an attempt to make things better with the universe and Karma for the way he had treated Aaron.

"Hey, Jethro! Is that thing giving you trouble again? Do you realize what time of night it is?" Derek called out from the curb, walking to the truck.

"Yeah, Derek, it's 20h00. And it looks like I'm gonna have to put it back in the garage and fix it again. Wanna help?" Jethro said with a smile.

"Sure thing, Jethro! Is Tim going to fix us up some grub or are we going to have to fend for ourselves?" inquired Derek.

"I'll be glad to fix some food for you and Jethro if you fix the darn thing," replied Tim graciously as he walked around the truck bed, holstering his gun. "Mr. Greer, would you mind helping us bring in our tree?"

Jethro got out of the car and the three of them got the tree in the house and in the stand. Tim thanked Mr. Greer by giving him some of the pot roast that was in the fridge. "Ya know, Tim, don't let my wife know, but you're a damn better cook than she'll ever think and hope to be," Derek said with a deep, rich laugh as he left.

"Well, we better get started on putting up the tinsel and lights, Jethro. Everyone's going to be here bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow and I want them to come into the house with Christmas decorations, after all it's only a couple days until Christmas." Tim started as Jethro put his arm around the Tim's waist.

…

It was 0h00 when the two of them finished putting the lights and tinsel on the tree. Tim had found an old train track with a model train that he wanted to put under the tree. Jethro saw the unbridled joy that was on Tim's face and couldn't say no to him. They were laughing and watching _A Muppet's Christmas Carol_, something that reminded Tim of Christmas at home. Tim, as usual, was pointing out all the inconstancies of the movie. He was especially intrigued by the fact that in the book the Ghost of Christmas Present was supposed to have two children–Ignorance and Want–under his robe, which he introduces to Scrooge as he suggests that Tiny Tim should hurry up and die if it meant a decrease in the world's surplus population, using Scrooge's words against him, right before Scrooge is to meet the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come and the movie did not include them. With the end of the movie, they decided that they needed to go to bed.

Jethro was in the bathroom, getting ready for bed, when he saw a shirtless Tim. He put his toothbrush away silently, and made his way over to finish assault that he had begun earlier that evening.

He put his arms around the bare torso and began to sway with Tim in his arms. Tim simply let out a moan and arced his back to put his neck in the crook of Jethro's neck. He was getting aroused so simply. He loved that Jethro's calloused hands felt so incredibly soft when they flowed across his body. As Jethro began to pull Tim to the bed, Tim went willingly to lying on his stomach. Jethro then used those calloused hands that were so used to working on wood, began to work over the younger man's tight back muscles. All Tim could do was moan and melt into the hands that were working over his back.

As Jethro worked on Tim's back, he decided he risk it. He pulled the waistband off Tim's ass and decided he was going to get some tonight. Not disapproving of Jethro's intentions, Tim simply lifted his ass and allowed Jethro to remove his shorts.

…

Back at the hotel room, Daigh and David were with another agent, Agent Nathan Blankenship. Agent Blankenship may not have the ability to sign in Japanese but he was very proficient at the Japanese language, nonetheless–after all, he was a bigger nerd than any person in Cybercrimes or McGee combined.

Agent Blankenship was a short man, standing only 5'5". He was a clean-cut dirty blonde with blue eyes of about 200 pounds that had the personality of a social butterfly. He could make anyone laugh with one of his stories from his community college days. He especially loved regaling the one time where he called out the president of the college over something that he shouldn't have done, for appearances sake. The president got so pissed that he accused Blankenship of slander and brought him before the Student Advisory Committee. He loved to tell that when he went before the committee, he had brought U.S. penal code that stated he didn't have to have the committee's permission to record them. When they saw the code, they all looked like deer in headlights and even had all three of the campus security come to try to verify it before they dismissed him by saying that they would have to consult their lawyer. He then brought out penal code defining slander, stating that what he had said was malicious, yes, maybe defamatory, but it was certainly not false. Since the conjunction 'and' was used, the law required that all three requirements of the statement be fulfilled in order to be charged of slander. The president was speechless and pissed off even further, knowing that he couldn't do anything about it. It was then Nathan Blankenship fell in love with law and penal codes. His father was in the Navy, but having a boyfriend of seven years, he didn't think he stood a chance. So he did the next best thing, he joined NCIS' legal department and ended up working under Agent Isuma Yamato. He father was proud, nonetheless that his son was still connected to the Navy. When he was first introduced to Agent Yamato, he had only been exposed to a few Japanese anime, but after coming on-board with Agent Yamato, the two started to share the passion and a budding friendship was found. Yamato taught Blankenship Japanese as Blankenship did the research to help Yamato win in the courtroom with Gibbs' cases, spending countless hours in front of law books to find the right precedent or law that could move the rock from the hard place. It only helped matters that Blankenship was a second generation Irish on his father's side and his grandparents had taught him Irish.

Daigh and Agent Blankenship were hitting it off well, to say the least. David was looking back and forth, confused, so Agent Blankenship would write down what he and Daigh were talking about. They were talking about David's parents, so Agent Blankenship could report to Gibbs when he took Daigh and David to his house in the morning. This was a very unusual case, if Agent Blankenship ever had seen one.

…

At NCIS, Tony and Ziva were going through Savannah Winters' background.

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><p><em><strong>What they discover will be up shortly... I'm still having to deal with personal problems... ugh, people... hope you have enjoyed this story so far :)<strong>_


	11. Chapter 11

And the World Will Open Its Arms to Me

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><p><em><strong>Alright, I'd first like to apologize to all my readers. It's been a rough couple of days, being absolutely sick and I lost my computer, and my friend is being a little drama llama and I hadn't really felt like finishing this, but I found my computer sat and wrote the background information for Ms. Savannah Winters as promised. It has no bearing to the love interests but it serves as case information. I hope you like this. I'm probably going to post tomorrow, but I would like to go ahead and wish all my readers all over the world a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thank you all for reading, faving, and alerting. Please review and let me know what you think of the chapter!<strong>_

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><p>It seems Savannah Winters had grown up in Botetourt County as well and attended Lord Botetourt High School with Daniel MacAlswerth. She was always the prettiest girl in the area. Savannah was about 5'5" with black hair that she had let grow out and pale skin, almost albino, but not quite. Her cold gray eyes were piercing, to say the least. She had inherited her gray eyes from her maternal grandmother and the abysmal noir of her hair from her paternal grandfather. She was one of those children that didn't look anything like her parental figures. She was in the graduating class behind Daniel. Being the intelligent, calculating, cold young woman even in high school, she didn't have many friends in high school, but that personality quirk was probably due to her father being gone all the time on business trips. That and her mother had died from a hit-and-run drunk driver that was never found, as she was crossing the street to visit a sick neighbor on Christmas when she was seven. Her father was rich enough to hire nannies for her and her younger brother, Blake, but Savannah never needed the care. She wanted the attention that her father wouldn't afford and that her mother could no longer give her. She became quite proficient with cooking, as her mother had always asked for her help in the kitchen. Cooking was the only thing that made her feel warm and loved. When she was a senior, she had a 4.0 GPA, captain of the debate team, and president of SGA. She kept herself busy to avoid the feelings of emptiness and pain from the loss of her mother and abandonment of her father. She went to college and majored in business management. In 1986, when she was 26, Savannah had started a very successful business selling music. Her store, Winters' Music Emporium, had grown, having 20 stores within the surrounding counties of Botetourt County. Her love life was nonexistent, as evident for her hatred of businessmen. The men that surrounded her were businessmen in the purest sense: cold, ruthless, meticulous, and underhanded. She wanted to find a simple man, someone who wouldn't leave her. In 1990, she found such a man: a police officer of Botetourt County by the name of Detective Zachary Trant. Their romance was something new to her. She never felt alone, even when Zachary was on duty late at night investigating a homicide. She finally found someone she truly loved. After a year of dating, they were wed. Det. Trant wasn't a picky person. He was the typical cop: 35, 6'2", 17 years on the force, overweight by fifty pounds, enjoyed coffee and doughnuts, brown hair with brown eyes. He was your typical cop with an average disposition. He didn't even mind that Savannah didn't take his name.<p>

It wasn't long before Det. Trant was undercover in a bar, trying to find the murderer of a 12-year-old girl, when the murderer had made him and fired his gun. His partner had called for an ambulance, but it was too late. The wound was fatal, as it had punctured his lung, and the extra weight had collapsed upon his lung. It was a painful death, but the murderer hadn't gotten away. Joshua Kilgore was charged with murder in the first degree of the 12 yr. old and Detective Trant. He was sentence to death by lethal injection. Only two years of marriage and Savannah Winters was already a widow. Zachary's partner, Evan Grant, told Ms. Winters that if there was anything that he could ever do for her, all she had to do was ask. That's when it hit her, Savannah asked Evan to investigate death of her mother, Patricia Winters. He agreed.

It had taken a long time, 5 years in fact, for Evan Grant to find the name of the hit-and-run driver that had killed her mother, but he found it. It just happened to be Urard MacAlswerth, Daniel MacAlswerth's father.

But that wouldn't be the last crossings Savannah would have with the MacAlswerths.

…

Blake Winters was a seven years younger than Savannah. He didn't have his sister's brains but he was physically fit. He too had that abysmal blackness in his hair, but his face had fuller color than she did. He was an active child, always running about, banging on pots and pans that he had pulled out of the cupboards. He loved football. When his father _was_ at home, the two of them would throw a football back and forth. He was the quarterback during his time at Lord Botetourt High School, just like MacAlswerth. He was a practical joker, too, but he knew when to stop. One time, in his junior year, he filled the back of a buddy's truck with water, Dawn, and dry ice. The resulting suds that filled the street behind them and the drivers behind them were more than a little pissed. After high school, he went to James Madison University with a full athletic scholarship. He played quarterback all four years. His grades were decent, making B's in most subjects, except chemistry and physics. For those subjects, he had to have a tutor's help putting the concepts into football terms. In his senior year, he was caught planting smoke bombs in the girls' locker room. For this, he was banned from playing the homecoming game, which left him to go out and get smashed. As a result of driving drunk, he had caused over $100,000 damage to several parked cars, no one was injured as it was about 2:00 A.M. He finished school with a B.S. in Physical Education, but because of the DUI, he was removed from the football team. Upon graduation in 1989, Blake Winters wanted to get his life back on the straight and narrow. Several of his high school friends had been in contact with him, and he decided to catch up with them. Alexi and Alexa Egorov were among of Blake's favorite two friends. Both of them were American born to immigrants who had been here since 1950, during the McCarthy Era. Both of them were subjected to some disdain, but Blake's sense of loyalty was too great to mistreat them just because they were born to Russian parents. After their father had died in 1985, the twins had taken over the family butcher shop. He was like their personal bodyguard. They had mentioned that the gang's other friend, Jason Hall, had went into the Marines. Jason was the troublemaker of the group, causing fights in school over various things. Alexi had told Blake that the Marines gave Hall a second chance–and the last he had spoken to Jason, he was in Hawaii. Blake decided to go to the local recruitment office and talk to the recruiter. After sleeping on the decision for a couple nights, and talking to Savannah, he decided to go into the Marines. He ended up being stationed at Camp Fuji, one of thirteen Marine bases located in Japan. His practical joking had stopped, for the most part. He still liked to play jokes, but he always knew when to stop. His sister visited him regularly. Every year since 1995, she had made it a point to go visit Blake. She would try her best to take him out to dinner and a movie, even if they couldn't understand the movie. She felt genuinely felt happy when she was spending time with her little brother. In 2005, however, one night while on personal time, one of the other marines, Petty Officer Oscar Morrison, had been shot in the head behind a bar in Gotenba. That's when the call was made to NCIS Osaka. Daniel MacAlswerth's team was the ones to respond to the scene.

Oscar had a bullet to the front of the head, execution style. He had defensive wounds on the front and back of his hands. He had a severe laceration to the stomach and a knife slash that made a triangle, starting at the entrance wound, across both eyes, and ending with a line that was in line with his mouth. The M.E. had determined that the triangle on the face was post-mortem, as to have the starting point of the triangle. The M.E. had also deduced that whoever had killed the Petty Officer had a grudge against him because the depth of the laceration to the stomach came from a sword. The M.E. had also determined that the TOD was between 01h30 and 02h00

There was a known hatred between Winters and Morrison. Morrison had beat Blake at a practical joke that went too far, even by Blake's standards. Two weeks before Morrison was found, Blake was heard by several of the other Marines that he vowed that Morrison was "a dead man walking."

Credit card receipts had linked Blake to the same bar that Morrison was at the night of his murder, but the amount was too much for a single Marine who only drank socially–sparingly at that. Witnesses had placed a voluptuous woman with Winters that was–according to his fellow Marines–"way out of his league". . To make matters worse, it had been Winters' knife had been used to cut Morrison's face. Without the gun, there wasn't enough evidence to continue the investigation. A week went by, and the gun that had been used to kill Petty Officer Morrison had found its way to MacAlswerth's desk via the mail. Things heated right back up when MacAlswerth went out to Camp Fuji to confront Blake with the incriminating evidence.

"_So you're going to tell me, Petty Officer Winters, that you had nothing to do with Petty Officer Morrison's death, even though several of your fellow Marines have already told me that you said he was a–how did you put it?–'a dead man walking'?" inquired the lead NCIS investigator MacAlswerth._

"_Yes, sir, I did vow that but I couldn't have done it," responded Winters._

"_And why's that Petty Officer?"_

"_Because, sir, as much as I talk, my anger is explosive but after I had a chance to cool off, I realized that if I couldn't take a joke gone wrong like I could dish them, sir, I had no right to pull them. I went to Morrison's quarters and apologized for my explosive outburst and he accepted the apology, sir," explained the practical joker Marine._

"_Alright. Just one more question: who were you with at the bar the night of the murder? Several witnesses place you with a 'voluptuous woman' that night."_

"_That would have been my sister, sir, Savannah Winters," answered the Marine._

"_You mean to tell me that you are Savannah Winters' younger brother from Botetourt County, Virginia!" MacAlswerth said incredulously, stepping out of the room._

_As MacAlswerth went into the room behind the glass, he told the agent sitting at the electronics panel to stop recording, both audio and video. He then gave the man a ten-minute coffee break._

_He walked back into the interrogation room. "That means you're Blake Winters." MacAlswerth was acting as though he didn't know whom the Marine was, effectively fooling Winters. "How have you been? I haven't seen you or her in ages, a lifetime ago!"_

"_Sir?" responded Winters, utterly confused as to the identity of the man before him._

"_My name is Daniel MacAlswerth, Blake, and I know your sister."_

"_OH! Permission to speak freely, sir?" Blake inquired, respecting the authority MacAlswerth had._

"_Right now it's just Daniel and Blake, no need to ask. I sent my agent for a break. We've got another six minutes before he comes back." responded MacAlswerth_

"_How have you been, then, Daniel?"_

"_I've been… got a wife and kid now. How is your sister doing? Ya know, I always worried about her in school, with her detached personality and all, she never seemed to quite fit in with the other girls."_

"_She's doing good: owns a successful business, she did get married to a homicide detective, but he died just two years into the marriage. An undercover sting gone bad. Got the perp, but cost him his life, sir." It was still awkward for Blake not to respond with 'sir' to the NCIS agent._

"_Alright, he should be back any minute. I'm going to ask you once more: did you kill Morrison?" questioned MacAlswerth a final time._

"_No, sir. I left the bar around 01h00 with Savannah. I took her to her hotel room and went right back to my barracks." Winters responded solemnly._

"_Well, we'll check things out. You're free to return to Camp Fuji. I'll call you later to catch up, if that's alright with you?" MacAlswerth was glad to have this case. He found somebody from back home that still had their southern drawl._

It was as Blake was returning to Camp Fuji that he was killed in the same fashion that Morrison was killed. After that, the case went cold.


	12. Chapter 12

I'm a Young Norwegian Princess, Or a Milk Maid

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><p><em><strong>Alright, guys, sorry about not putting this up yesterday. I had a great party, got a little drunk, and slept the day away. I'm so sorry! Not to mention, that when I did wake up, I was depressed cause I hate spending holidays alone. But I hope that you all had a safe and happy celebration as you rang in the new year. As promised here is the next installment. (And YES I know that the title isn't the lyrics from the latest R&amp;H <strong>__**Cinderella**__**, it's from the original with Julie Andrews, so that makes it that much better!).**_

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><p>0530 came <em>way<em> too early for Tim. "Jethro! You mind going out the store and a grab another gallon of milk? I'm going to use all that we have left for breakfast!" he yelled from the kitchen upstairs.

"Sure thing, Tim!" Jethro yelled back as he was putting on his shirt.

Tim finished making the gravy as the biscuits he had made from scratch were baking. He had fixed eggs, bacon, ham, omelets, and sausage links already and placed them on the table. He had expected Tony, Ziva, Abby and Ducky, Agents Yamato and Suzuki, Daigh and David, and the agent that had been placed in charge of his protection detail. He had made an extra place in case Director Vance decided to show up and check in on his agents. Making food for ten people that ate for twenty-five was hard work. He had barely had time to put the gravy in the bowl before Tony had walked in around 0645.

"Tony, why are you here so early? I wasn't expecting anyone here for another 15 minutes." Tim stated as he cleaned up the mess that he had made cooking.

"Is Gibbs home?" Tony asked nervously.

"No, I sent him out for some milk as I used the rest for the gravy. He should be back shortly. Why, what did you find out about Ms. Winters?"

Tony set the files down at a plate on the table.

"Well, it's not what I want to ask him; it's what I want to tell you." Tony said as he stepped closer to Tim.

"Uh, Tony, what's going on? Why are you acting so strange?" Tim was already against the counter, but he was trying to back up anyway.

"I wanted to tell you that I like you, but every time I try to say something nice, I end up saying something stupid." Tony had finally caught up to Tim, he was about 6 inches from his face, proud of himself for saying something that had tormented him for years. To top it all, he didn't even quote a movie or mess things up by sticking his foot in his mouth. He handed him a rose and a box of chocolates with a card on top. "Merry Christmas, Tim."

"Uh, Tony, I don't–"

"Throw them away." stated Jethro flatly with a gallon of milk in one hand and a tray of coffee for his team in the other.

"Jethro, I can't do that. You know how important Tony's friendship is to me." Tim replied as he set the gifts on the counter and started to walk towards Jethro, in an effort to help. When Tony heard _friendship_, his face dropped.

…

Breakfast went well. As well as could be expected between Gibbs and Tony, now that Tony had just informed Tim that he liked him. Tony was quite, Ziva gave a detail debriefing of what was in the file that Agent MacAlswerth wanted us to find. "Here is the actual case file, _78264924-9685425A_. They must use a different filing system than we do. And it's a lot fuller than any of our files." Ziva commented as she filled her mouth with an omelet. Daigh was helping David get the food he wanted, asking Jethro in sign. This made Jethro very warm on the inside, reminding him of Kelly. Agent Blankenship was flirting with Tony and Tsubame quite unashamedly. Ziva was laughing at his jokes and his stories, but all the while seeing the hurt in Tony's eyes. Agent Yamato was sitting at the other end of the table across from Jethro and he was enjoying the time with the agents who made his life so easy.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," started Yamato, "But the thought came to me last what if we can't find his parents or if they both… Well, what I want to know the answer to is to whom will he go with? I do not mean any disrespect Mr. Moore, but I do not think that you could successfully translate what the child wants."

David stopped eating, as he noticed that everyone was looking at Isuma, and looked at him with the question of "What are you saying?" written all over his face. Nathan looked down at David and then at Gibbs. "Should I tell him?"

"Yes. It's his parents and he has every right to know what's going on." Gibbs said with half a smile as he looked at David.

Nathan took out a piece of paper and wrote the question that Isuma had asked.

David looked at the paper. It took him a few minutes to comprehend what Blankenship had written. His eyes became full of tears and he ran into the living room, leaving the toast and gravy uneaten.

Immediately Isuma put down his napkin and rushed over to the silent child. Isuma pulled the child close to his chest and let the child cry. As the crying subsided, the child looked up at the older Japanese agent with indignation and fervently signed "They not dead ." and closed his eyes.

Yamato knew that a deaf child closing their eyes was the equivalent to a hearing child putting speakers in their ears with the music on full blast. He knew that if he was going to talk to the child he would have to manipulate the fingers of the child. He grabbed the child's left hand and began to sign the katana for the words that he was trying to communicate to the child.

"Sorry. Question not real, just pretend. Where would you stay if they true dead?" he formed the words in his hand. He indeed was sorry that he asked the question in front of the child, but it had to be asked at one point in time, and he would have rather asked it now as opposed to if or when they actually found his parents dead.

As the child got over the hurt, he opened his eyes, wiped the tears from his eyes, and ran back to Gibbs, who was still sitting in the chair, eating.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Timothy excused himself from the table and opened the door to Director Vance. "We-we-welcome Director Vance. Have you had breakfast yet? If not, would you like some; I set a place for you beside Ducky." Tim said as he motioned for the director of NCIS to come inside the house.

"Thank you, Agent McGee. I had a cup of coffee and what my wife pretends to call breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal. Who else is here?" Vance said as walked inside.

…

It was about 0930 before everyone had left the house to go about the day. It had gone extremely well. Vance was mortally pissed to see that Daigh Moore was sitting at the table in amongst the agents, but after being pacified by Ziva–with the explanation that he is not considered a suspect and the only relative in the country to David MacAlswerth–resigned that it was a bit unorthodox, but he was still wary of the Irish national who had ties to the IRA. Gibbs had Isuma and Tsubame go to MTAC with McGee to see just whom this Jonathan character was, and to see if he was needed to be brought in as a suspect or to gather the information that was inside his perceptive mind. Blankenship was sent to spend the day with Daigh and David as Daigh took the child to see the national Christmas tree, as Christmas was two days away now. Much to Gibbs' disapproval, Blankenship seemed to be flirting a bit too much with Daigh and told him to stay focused on the job, not the piece of tail.

Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva had the distinct pleasure of reviewing the file that had been obtained from NCIS Osaka. They were downstairs in autopsy with Ducky so that his insights could be gained as well.

…

"There, I've given them the file. *gasp* May I see my wife, please?" gasped Daniel.

"Of course you may see her, you've been most helpful, Daniel." Snow White said as she drug her fingers down his right cheek.

She motioned to her swordsman to go fetch Catherine. Her swordsman was not an impressive man. He was about 150 pounds, 5' 7", thin as a pencil with an eight pack. He had a five o'clock shadow that made him look older than he was since his skin was so pale. His hair was cut short, spiked with bleached tips, which looked awkward with this black hair. On his left ring finger was a wedding band that was severely tarnished. If you didn't know better, you would call him a ninja as opposed a samurai, as he carried a twin set of blades that made an "X" on his back and a single blade that was attached around his waist with the hilt of the blade to the left. He grunted lightly and didn't speak as he left the room.

"Now that we're alone, I might as tell you. She wasn't as cooperative as I first hoped, so she needed to be persuaded to talk." Snow White said with an evil tone in her voice.

Catherine walked in with this statement. Her pale skin was tainted with a gash to the face and a broken nose. Her right eye had been blackened and her hair was all out of sorts. As she walked in, Daniel gasped and gave Snow White a look that could have killed her a thousand times over. "I'm going to leave to two of you alone now that I have what I wanted. It's a pity my brother could be here to stop me from hurting you. He was always the goody-goody of the family." Snow White said as she and her swordsman left the basement of the house.

"Are you alright, my dear? I'm so sorry. It's all my fault."

"Daniel, honey, I'm alright. I've taken worse from the Yakuza. And no it's not your fault. This bitch would have found us one way or another. I'm just worried about ánrothán." She was prone to call her son by his middle name when she was genuinely scared for his safety.

"ánrothán will be alright, he's a bright boy. An agent at NCIS here in D.C. told me that he was with his boss. So he's safe." Daniel spoke in a soften voice, so sweetly to calm his wife.

…

McGee had run the search on Jonathan Demro. Turns out Demro had a criminal record. Jonathan had grown up on a farm in northeast Tennessee. At the age of 12, he was arrested for dying several of the family's chicks one Easter for shits and giggles. He thought it would be funny for the annual Easter egg scavenger hunt the town hosted. All the kids thought he was awesome. Some of the adults even laughed, but most were just worried that their children would start copying his hijinks. It didn't help that the fathers of the neighbor kid his family spent time with was a cop. He was arrested and ended up spending the 5 nights in jail that was required by Tennessee law. His mother and father thought it would teach him a lesson. That was the only thing that was on his record. He was in his second year in Strayer University's criminal justice administration program. The 24 year old was not a problem; in fact, he was very proactive in his watch of the hotel. He had called the local leo's numerous times to report suspicious activity in the area on his shift at the hotel. He was looking less and less as a suspect, and more and more like a junior DiNozzo.

_What did Tony mean when he gave me the rose and the box of chocolates. I bet they're laced with a laxative. But the way he said it, it seemed almost heart-felt. Well, I'm not going to throw them out, and if Jethro does, I'll chew him out so bad he'll think he's married again._

That final thought made him smile.

"Agent McGee, are you listening?" asked Agent Yamato. He saw the smile and knew that McGee had not been paying attention.

"Sorry, Agent Yamato, I was thinking about something that happened this morning. What did you say?"

"Could you triangulate Agent MacAlswerth's phone? I have an idea." responded Isuma

"Sure thing." McGee triangulated the phone for a second time and found that the phone was still at 15978 Annan Drive. The same place that it was at when the phone call from when Daniel had called NCIS.

"Now could you pull up Savannah Winters' information, please?" requested Tsubame.

When McGee did that, he noticed that she had a second house in Glen Echo, just not on Annan Drive. "I'm so stupid! How could I miss this? I've got to inform Jeth-Gibbs!"

"It's ok to call him Jethro, after all I can see that you want to make him happy." smiled Isuma at the young man. He had forgotten his late wife. The way McGee reminded him of her was uncanny. He hadn't thought of her in years–and the smile that was on his face was something he hadn't had on his face in a decade.


	13. Chapter 13

I'm the Greatest Prima Donna in the Land

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><p><em><strong>Alright, so last night, as I was going to bed, I got a phone call from a friend of mine and the resulting converations was the inspiration for this chapter. The drama llama left (thankfully) as my friend left. So this chapter came from how things could have gone between us. But really I wanted to focus on this lawyer that is going to pull things together for Tony, but I felt like I should give you all bit of a background to their relationship. I hope you all like the chapter not much McGibbs but more trying to solve the case. Anyway please read and review! Your comments, concerns and ideas are always welcome! Plus I thought that the title deserved a little recognition in the fact that Tony tends to act like a prima donna somedays...<strong>_

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><p>At noon, DiNozzo had left autopsy to make a call, leaving Ziva, Ducky, and Gibbs alone.<p>

…

*ri-*

"Hello, sweetie." said a feigned feminine voice with a feigned British accent.

"Alex –" Tony started.

"Yeah, yeah. 'Alex, how did you know that it was me? You didn't even give the phone a chance to ring a full time!' You know me, Tony. I _always_ know when you call." said the voice in a more masculine demeanor with a sound of being rushed. "So what do want this time, help with a case. Oh! by the way, how is _Ms. Benoit_?

"Alex, I need your help. And I don't know how Jeanne is doing, we, uh, had a falling out." admitted the agent with slight hesitance. "The last time I talked to her, she was going to Africa with _Doctors Without Borders_."

"Tony, when are you going to learn…" the man said as he shook his head, even though he wasn't in front of his favorite 'straight' man. "I'll be on the first flight from Baltimore to D.C. I've already got my suitcase packed. What am I going up against?"

…

_Tony didn't trust many people, but Alexander Kurucz was one of the few people he did. Alexander was a 3rd generation Hungarian-American, relishing in his cultural background. Older than him by three years, Tony found something Alex possessed as a skill. Alex had been very helpful in his days a Baltimore cop when he couldn't solve the crime for lack of evidence. Alex's ability to perceive things that others missed was quite useful to DiNozzo. Over time, Tony and Alex had become very close friends. Alex followed him with a blind devotion, but never crossed the line of friend. When Tony had falling-outs with girlfriends or needed a place to crash before returning to work in a few hours, Alex told him that he was always welcome._

_Although those movie quotes drove Alex insane, he knew that that was his Tony's personality dysfunction. In an effort to become even closer to Tony, Alex had entrusted Tony with a set of keys to a locked door in his home. The room was the symbol of ultimate control in his life and Alex wanted to give that to Tony. Tony honestly didn't know what to expect. He wasn't used to someone wanting to follow him so blindly without anything in return. Alex asked him to take the keys, and, in the elation of Alex, Tony did, although he had no clue as to what to do with them._

_One night, while he was drinking with Alex, Tony's curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to see what exactly was in the room._

_As he walked in, the light was off. He searched for the light switch but found none. He found the fan that was in the room and pulled the light switch on it. When the light turned on, he found something that he wished he didn't see. Boxes and boxes of cases, with "SOLVED" written on the face of them stacked neatly on shelves. Some of the case numbers, in fact, most of the case numbers were familiar to Tony. He turned off the light, locked the door, and walked back into the living room where Alex was sitting on the couch._

_He hit Alex with a right hook, picked him up by the shoulders, and placed his right hand around Alex's throat, pinning him against the wall. "If you knew you were like this, Tony, I would have asked you to be my boyfriend." Alex said with eyes wide open, somewhat scared of Tony._

"_I want you to tell me the truth, Alex: What is with all the boxes in that room with my case numbers on them?" Tony asked as he tightened his grip around Alex's neck._

"_I… They… It's nothing you need to worry about, Anthony. I promise." Alex was absolutely scared by Tony at this point, but in the same respect, his submissive attitude prevented him from looking the man he deemed 'master' in the eye._

_In an effort not to leave a mark, Tony took his left hand and backhanded Alex. "Do not lie to me, Alex." Tony said as he pointed his finger in Alex's face. "I trusted you and you betrayed me. I thought I was just a friend to you."_

_Alex was completely stunned. He never knew that his Anthony had this in him, which made him fall even farther. "It's not what you think, Tony, I promise. With everything in me, the numbers are the cases I've help solve. But what is inside them is completely different. Think of what you are doing to me right now. Think about my attitude towards you. You're the detective, detect the pattern of the evidence present." His eyes were pleading with Tony to understand, so he didn't have to explain every last detail to the younger man._

"_But you're not like that. You're too professional. One of the best C.I.'s I've ever had. A lawyer who wins most of the high-stake cases for the state, like the head of a corporation last year that was buying off several of the congressmen . I don't understand." Tony finally let go of Alex's neck. There was a visible handprint on Alex's neck as Alex sat back down on the couch. "So, question: why?" asked Tony as he sat down in a chair across from Alex,._

"_Does there have to be an answer? I just am that submissive. As to the question of 'why you,' I chose you because I trust you. And this explosion shows that I chose correctly. I knew that as soon as you saw the numbers on the boxes, you would lose your temper and come at me, demanding an answer. I knew your temper was short, I've seen it with the way you've handled some of the criminals. Nothing you've done surprised me, except for backhanding me. That was an unexpected extra." Alex got up from the couch and walked over to Tony, kneeling before the younger man. "I promise, as long as I live, your happiness will be my one and only priority. If you ever need anything, allow me the opportunity to be your first call. I will do anything that you ask of me."_

_Tony was shocked. He had never had someone so willing to serve him, so blindly._

…

"Alex, it's about McGee. I'm just a 'friend' to him. That and this case is really difficult. We don't have any evidence–minus a finger–of where the missing NCIS agents are and their son is strange. He's deaf and knows JSL, but Gibbs is teaching him ASL, to communicate with him. I'm just lost as to what this case has in store, and I really could stand just to see you again." Tony confessed.

"Alright, my little movie quoter, time for some Hungarian help. Say no more; I've a ticket, first class nonetheless," he said with a little brag, "and I'll see you in about 3 hours. Oh, is your boss, Leroy Gibbs, ok with you bringing me on board? I have a friend in the FBI that has told me about him. He sounds like he hates outsiders. Either that or just flat out doesn't trust them. Oh! gotta go, plane's being boarded." Alex said, hanging up the phone as he was boarding.

"Who was that, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, laying on the barrier to his desk.

"A friend, boss, who's given me some good help when I was in Baltimore. I figured he could give us a hand. Is that ok, Gibbs?" as he put the phone back on the cradle.

"How good is he? What're his credentials?"

"He's a lawyer with the state attorney general in Maryland. He's got a 100% conviction rate that deals with white collar crimes. But he's got an eye for criminal activity no matter what kind of crime he's looking at. Loyal to a fault, and knows what to say in the most delicate of situations. I trust him completely." Tony responded with a touch of humility.

"Alright, read him in." Gibbs said with a smile, before he added, "And be sure to take your _friend_ out to a good restaurant when he gets in, on me."

…

Meeting with Alex was and probably always will be an event in and of itself for Tony.

_The first time he had met the man, he was posing as an innocent bystander that was when a druggie had been apparently killed by the dealer for shortchanging him for the drugs._

"_Do all Baltimore cops jump to such unnecessary conclusion so quickly, Detective DiNozzo?" said an older man with wrinkles and white hair, who appeared to be homeless. His clothes were tattered and worn; his toboggan was a bright orange as his clothes were clearly a dark green and khakis._

"_Who are you? How do you know my name? What are you doing here? I thought the officers had cleared the scene," asked a rather annoyed Tony._

"_I'm a lawyer. It's on your name badge you flashed. I wanted to talk to you about this kid. Yes, they did clear the scene. I just happen to get in to help you." the old man said as he stood up from his crouching position. "And no, the dealer didn't kill him, I gave him the drugs."_

"_Then I'm going to arrest you for dealing–"_

"_Dealing is legally defined as handing out drugs for usually financial gain. There was no gain of any kind from me __giving__ him the drugs; therefore I am not under arrest." the old man walked up to __DiNozzo and patted his shoulder. "If you're going to try and be a cop, know the law, so I don't have to do your job in addition to mine." he said with a smirk._

_DiNozzo grabbed the older man's arm and threw him up against the wall. He noticed that the mask tore as he roughed up the man. DiNozzo grabbed the mask and pulled it off. When he realized whom he had just assaulted, he let go and stood in shock. Alexander Kurucz, one of the best lawyers in all of Maryland, was standing right before him in tattered clothes._

This time Alex had met him at L'Amboise, a fancy restaurant that had just opened up in Arlington. Alex had a pair of titanium handcuffs dyed black for Tony this time wrapped in a box with a bow. Not that this was any different from the exoticness of the other gifts Alex gave Tony whenever he saw him.

"My, it's been years since I last saw you, Anthony. How have you been?" Alex said with a hug.

"Too long, my friend, too long." replied Tony.

"So what has you call me in the middle of the morning on a day when I have a big case to when for the people of Maryland?"

"This." Tony responded as he plopped file in front of the lawyer with all the information they had gathered so far.

The lawyer looked at the file, more specifically at the pictures of the victims. He reached for his iPhone in his jacket pocket and dialed a number. "Hello, Zander, I need you to call the judge handling the Scorati case and tell him that I won't be in town for a few days and I'm filing a motion for a continuance for three days on the case. Thank you, Zander."

"Since when did you start sleeping around on me?"

"Are we jealous, master? I'm not sleeping with Zander; his wife is sweet, and the kid he has is downright adorable. Plus I'm his godfather. So, you mentioned McGee. Can I meet him please he sounds like he's a little cutie… He must be _awfully_ cute to make you go after him. Because the last time I check, I was the last guy you kissed and that was because you were practically begging me to give you a taste of man… Remember how we ended up? I think you ended up stark naked in my bed and I had on boxers." Alex proclaimed with a wail of laughter.

Tony turned red. "McGee has been the object of my affection for a long time, but every time I want to say something–"

"You end up saying some damned movie quote and he's not the movie buff you are, so he doesn't get the joke or quote or whatever. Yeah, you're still the same, master. What did I tell you about those damn quotes? They are not pick-up lines! So you need to solve this case and need to at least ask McGee on a date, right?" finished Alex

"And I can't very well do that because he's going out with Gibbs."

"WHAT? Gibbs is gay? Wow… this day is getting better and better. Ya know, I'm sorta glad you dragged me down here, Tony."

"How do you know my team, Alex?" asked the agent.

"You didn't think that I wouldn't check on your team when you told me who you were working with. I told you I would protect you and that your happiness came first to me. Don't underestimate my connections, Tony, I even knew the day Kate died and when that Timothy McGee started." Alex said in a solemn voice, clearly agitated at Tony for not trusting him to take care of him.

Tony gave a defeated look to the man he shared his first guy kiss with, and looked at the food was being placed in front of him. "So are you going to help us or not?"

"Of course, and miss a chance to have Tom. E. Gemcity autograph my books, are you crazy? Plus there's a little kid who needs his parents brought home." Alex said as he started to dig in to the food.

Tony looked at the older man and simply smiled at his friend as he too stuffed his face with the food before him.


	14. Chapter 14

I'm an Heiress Who Has Always Had Her Silk Made

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><p><em><strong>So the way I ended the last chapter was pretty good to set up for this. I did some research as to the gun and round information. If it's wrong, I do apologize. I'll be starting school soon, but I promise to try my best to keep this up on a regular basis - one or two days between updates. On another note, the reviews make me happy that you all are happy with the story. Any ideas or anything y'all wanna see are always welcome- trust me, some of these ideas are hard to come up with on my own. But enough about me and this, on with the story:<strong>_

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><p>Looking through the scope of the sniper rifle, a young man had Alex within his sight. His orders: maim, not kill. Snow White couldn't add murder to her already impressive set of charges, just yet. So she wanted her huntsman to take their mind of off finding the two agents at the moment. She wasn't quite done with them yet. She was furious that they were involving so many people over these two agents and the file she wanted reviewed.<p>

The man looking through the scope was short, maybe 5'4" at best, with shoulder length dirty blonde hair, a stud in his left nostril, and by no means of the imagination was he a people person. With the young Hungarian in his sight, he fires a round into his left pectoral muscle.

Screams were heard all around them, as Alex fell lifelessly to the ground out of the chair in which he was sitting. Tony's first reaction: call Gibbs.

"Gibbs! Somebody just shot Alex! I need you down here pronto! Please!" Tony screamed into the phone.

As Tony was on the phone with Gibbs, a man came over and began to inspect the wound.

"NCIS, back away sir." Tony said to the man, but focused on Alex.

"But I'm a–" started the man.

"I. Don't. Care. Back. Away." Tony turned and growled to the man.

…

Twenty minutes later, Gibbs was at the scene getting witness statements, Ziva was taking photos of Alex's wounds, Director Vance was there wondering why Gibbs was there, and McGee was casing the building across the street for the bullet casing.

"I don't care Gibbs. This is a job for the local leo's!" Leon said to Gibbs in a strained yell.

"_My_ agent called _his_ contact to help investigate _our_ case. He is in _our_ protection and _we_ are responsible for _his_ safety. _That's _what we're doing here. Do you have a problem with _that_?" emphasized Jethro, watching out for his investment in Tony's contact.

"Not with that logic. I'll justify it to the SECNAV that way because he is breathing down my neck to find the MacAlswerths." Leon said as he left with the cell phone attached to his ear.

The witnesses had placed the flash of the shot somewhere between the 20th and 25th floor of the business across the street. Fortunately, there were only five offices to each side of the building. On the 24th floor, McGee found a shell casing in the middle office. "Boss, I found a shell casing," he said over the phone to his lover. "I'll get it to Abby."

"Alright, Tim. Be careful, please," Gibbs spoke softly away from everyone else. Closing the phone, he walked over to Ducky and stared at Alex's wound. "Anything serious, Duck?"

"Nothing serious. I think I can remove the round from the shoulder back in Autopsy, if that alright with our young gentleman right here?" Ducky said with a smile as he looked to Alex.

"He's going." Tony answered for Alex, who looked at him suddenly.

"Tony, I'm fine, I don't need to–" Alex started to rebuttal.

Tony kneeled down to get in Alex's face, grabbing his chin up to pull his eyes to meet his. "You _are_ going to NCIS. You _are_ going to have Ducky get that round out of your shoulder. And you _are_ going to do what I say. Do you understand?"

"Yes, master, I understand." Alex looked down from Tony's eyes and towards the ground, defeated. It had been a long time since Tony had pulled that dominating attitude on him. This was the reason Tony made the perfect master; he didn't use it all the time, but when he needed to, he could. He didn't need NCIS tending to his wound; any hospital would have done just fine, but Tony had said he was getting it. There was there _nothing_ he could do to prevent the help–Tony had said so, and therefore, it was binding.

Ducky didn't interrupt the two men as he had Palmer help Alex onto the gurney and into the van.

…

Back in Autopsy, Palmer had cleaned up all the files that the team was looking at before responding to the shooting.

"Was that really necessary, Anthony? The man didn't need to be intimidated. But the question I have is: Why did he call you 'master'? When did he enter your life?" Ducky began to question Tony, as he was cleaning the wound in Alex's chest.

"Yes, it was necessary, Ducky. He doesn't understand that he is my friend and that comes with certain priorities." Tony said as he was staring Alex down.

"As to 'master', I'm sure you aren't as naïve as you're leading me to believe, Dr. Mallard. We've been friends for years." Alex said, looking the doctor straight in the eyes, not wavering in his glare.

"Oh please call me Ducky. It's so good to meet a friend of Anthony's. Well, this does remind me of this one young man that came to see us–well, he didn't have the ability to leave, like you. But he a young lieutenant who had several marks on his body that were inconsistent with the wounds he had suffered." Ducky started out.

Ducky went on with his story. Thirty minutes had passed before Ducky was done with his story. Alex was fully engrossed in the story and glared at Tony every time he wanted to interrupt the story.

Ducky finished bandaging the wound, put his left arm in a sling, and sent him on his merry way. As the elevator doors shut, Tony backhanded Alex. Alex took the glancing blow without flinching. "I'm sorry for contradicting you, master." Alex said, hanging his head in shame, looking to the right, away from Tony.

"So are you seeing anyone? Is there anyone you are going to see for Christmas?" Tony asked nonchalantly.

"No and no. I haven't seen anyone since the night I told you I'd always be yours. Although my family has nothing to do with me, I still think of the Christmases when you would visit me. I get drunk and cry myself to sleep, wanting to see you. Then seven days later, it's the same thing for New Years'. And then again in April for my birthday. Usually I don't think about you if I have a case or working on an affidavit or some other motion, but I can't help thinking about you all the time, master."

Tony pulled the switch to stop the elevator with this revelation. "Why didn't you call? Or come see me? Or something? You know I would have let you stay with me through the holidays. No one deserves to be alone on the holidays." Tony was feeling hurt, as if he had betrayed the man that followed with such devotion, but at the same time, he was hurt that he himself hadn't called or sent a card or anything to the man who trusted him so absolutely.

"Why should I break your happiness for mine? What gives me the right to demand your time when you're not interested in me? You've never been, and you'll never be. Even if you were gay, I'm not your type. I'm not worth your time. I will always be your extra set of eyes on a crime first, friend second." Alex said as he backed up to the wall, looking down the whole time. "So what do you want me to say to McGee?"

Tony couldn't respond to that. The words cut down to the core of him. He was right. Ever since he had met Alex, he had used him solely for his understand of the criminal mind. But after a while, he did become friends with him. With this, he started the elevator back up and headed back towards the bullpen, with nary a sound out of either man.

…

Down in Abby's lab, Gibbs came up behind her holding the standard Caf-POW! in his hand. "So what do ya got for me, Abs?"

"Gibbs, I'm still running programs trying to figure out what type of bullet McGee brought me." *ping, ping* "Oh! There ya go: a 7.62mm Soviet." *clack, clack, clack* "The most common rifle for this type of ammo–"

"Is an Russian SKS." Gibbs finished her sentence, as was the norm, kissed her and left to go back to the bullpen.

*ping, ping, ping*

"Gibbs!" Abby yelled from her computer.

Just as the elevator door was closing, Gibbs put his hand in front of the door and shook it up and down to open the door. He walked back into the lab and saw a face on the computer screen. _It must be a fingerprint match from the casing Tim brought back,_ thought Gibbs. "What is it, Abby?"

"This is your shooter. Meet Lenka Vissarionovich Popava. Russian national here on an H-1B work visa for the past 2 years." Abby proclaimed as she jumped up and down in excitement.

"Got an address?" Gibbs wondered aloud.

"Of course. *click, click, clack* He lives at 18795 Princeton Avenue, in Glen Echo, MD." Abby said to no one, noticing there was a box of chocolate on her desk. "How does that man do it?"

…

"Yeah? Gibbs."

"Boss, Savannah Winters has–" McGee started.

"Property out in Glen Echo, Maryland, I know McGee."

"But how, Boss?"

"I read the report that Ziva gave to me morning at breakfast."

"So, let me guess, you want me and Ziva to go check things out at her place, huh?" Tim asked presumptuously.

"No, you and I are going. Ziva is going to check out another place in the same area." Gibbs responded with a smirk to catch Tim off-guard.

…

"Ziva, you, McGee, and I are going to Glen Echo. You're going in one car, and McGee and I are going in another. Tony, you and Alex keep going through MacAlswerth's files, see what a fresh pair of eyes can find." Gibbs ordered as the three of them grabbed their guns, Ids, and gear.

…

The car ride was especially quite between the two men. Tim broke the silence. "Ya know I'm going to keep the rose and the box of chocolates Tony gave to me."

There was no response except Gibbs' foot pressing down on the gas.

"Stop this car. Now, Jethro. What is going on between you and Tony?"

Jethro stopped the car. He turned and looked at Tim.

"Nothing. He and I are disagreeing about something personal and I've been trying my best to ignore it for work, but when he gave you the chocolate and the roses, he crossed the line." Jethro blurted out.

"He likes me–big deal. I'm with _you_. I will always choose you. I promise. I chose you from the moment I saw you."

"So you won't leave me for him?"

"No, Jethro, I won't leave you for him."

Jethro started the car and continued on his way to Glen Echo.


	15. Chapter 15

By Her Own Flock of Silkworms in Japan

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><p><em><strong>Alright, I know that this is a very short chapter, but things have come up and I might have to go to the hospital with a family member within the next 24 hours. I do hope that, despite the shortness of the chapter, that y'all enjoy it! So on with the story!<strong>_

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><p>*knock, knock*<p>

_No response_.

*knock, knock*

"Lenka Popava, NCIS. I have a few questions for you." Ziva called out.

_No response_.

Ziva walked around the encompassing porch that adorned the house. It was an older home that was painted a hideous school bus yellow with tree bark brown window shutters on the outside of the house. She walked a couple steps, avoiding the cluttered mess that was the porch–grill, baseball gloves, bats, different types of sporting equipment, several crossbows, a pile of wood that was almost to the awning (indicating a stove furnace)–to a window that did not have any blinds or drapes to it. _Obviously he does not have the concept of privacy,_ thought Ziva as she looked through the window.

Guns, lots of guns spread all around the house, but not a person to be found. As the precaution, Ziva quickly unholstered her gun. "Mr. Popava! I would like to have a word with you!" Ziva called out in a loud voice.

"May I help you, ma'am?" a voice from behind and to the left of her rang out.

Quickly Ziva turned around, gun still pointing, to see to whom the voiced belonged. "Who are you? Mr. Popava?"

"No, ma'am, my name is Davenport. Harley Davenport." said the young man. He was about 17 or 18, stocky for his age, about 280 pounds, 6' even. He handed her his ID. "Sorry about scaring you ma'am." He started to scratch at his dye green hair, nervous to say the least.

"Well, Mr. Davenport?" Ziva reassured herself with the name by looking at the driver's license. "Have you seen your neighbor, Mr. Popava?" Ziva asked the young man.

"Sure, he left to go to the grocer's. He always leave around 6 P.M." responded the young man, less nervous, but nonetheless, still scared of the federal agent.

"Do you know when he will be back?"

"Yes, ma'am. Any minute. He's typically gone for about an hour, give or take a few minutes." Harley said, gradually becoming calmer.

"Thank you very much. Now, Mr. Davenport, would you please go back inside your home?" Ziva asked politely but giving him that look of "If you don't, I'll have to arrest you…".

…

"Tony, I think you better take a look at this photo." Alex said as he handed the photo to Tony. "What do you see?" The photo was a preliminary photo, taken at the scene of the crime. It was an impersonal photo of Petty Officer Morrison and the wounds that had been inflicted to his face.

"A mess. A dead petty officer with a damn good record." Tony responded with a touch of humility.

"What about in the top right corner of the photo? Isn't that a bullet casing? Looks to me it belongs to a standard Glock 9-mil. But that's not what's interesting." pointed out Alex as he stood up in the bullpen to walk around.

"The casing isn't brass-colored. It's been died purple? Who does that?" Tony was perplexed.

"Remember that case in Baltimore, where the killer had always left the Queen of Hearts and you assumed that the killer was either gay or a woman, when in fact the killer was a straight man who was killing his ex's friends and family to get back at her for every time she had cheated on him? He used numerous ways to kill people–poison, gun, bats, fists, knives –and the only thing that was similar was the Queen of Hearts left somewhere in the vicinity of the victim." Alex said endearingly, so not to ruffle feathers.

"Yeah, it was like that sniper we had a couple years ago that was killing the Marine recruiters and left the white bird feather somewhere when he cased the place." Tony said as he got up and put the photo onto the plasma.

Alex sat back down, searched through the other photos, and found the file with Blake Winters' photos. He flipped through those photos and pulled out a photo. "See, here's the casing in the Winters boy's crime scene."

It wasn't purple, but blue. "We may have a serial killer's cold case." Alex said as he placed his right forearm on Tony's shoulder and leaned his head onto his own arm, staring at the plasma screen.

"I gotta call Vance and let him know." Tony commented, still standing there without moving.

"Yeah, I know you do. What am I doing for Christmas? Since I'll obviously still be here with you…r team." Alex studdered. He couldn't bring himself to impose on Tony.

…

"It's 17590 Vassar Circle, Jethro. This is Ms. Winters' place." Tim said.

As Gibbs and McGee approached the old brick Victorian era house, McGee was impressed with the upkeep that had been given to the large house. The shutters looked brand-new, the lawn was in immaculate condition, with an inch of snow covering the lawn, although there was nothing on the sidewalk, with no indication that any shoveling had occurred. The pillars to the house didn't have any wear or tear to them, in fact, they looked as if they had just been made and placed. Gibbs knocked on the door with a short rap.

"Ms. Winters, NCIS."

"Coming!" came a faint, shrill voice. When Ms. Winters opened the door, neither one of the men had expected to see what was before them.

A woman–fifty years of age, average weight and height–was wearing a black turtleneck with a pair of black sweatpants on and had maroon toboggan on. "Yes? What may I do for you gentlemen?" said the woman in a 2nd alto voice as she pulled off her maroon finger gloves.

"Excuse me, ma'am," began McGee, "but we are looking for a Ms. Savannah Winters. Do you know where she might be?"

The woman looked at Tim incredulously. "She's right in front of your eyes, you inept moron." She turned and looked to Gibbs. "I hope you're the senior agent," she said rudely, "because if you're the junior agent, I'm calling my congressman and ask him to who the hell I complain to about the stupidity of our federal agents…"

"I am the senior agent, Miss Winters. I apologize for my probationary agent's comment." Gibbs looked directly into her eyes. "We just have a couple questions for you, may we come in?"

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><p><em><strong>I've having a bit of trouble uploading the next two chapters of my story since this is chapter 15... if anybody know's how to add a 16th chapter, PLEASE HELP! *clasp hands together and bows head, pleading*<strong>_


	16. Chapter 16

I'm a Girl Men Go Mad For

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><p><em><strong>Alright guys! Sorry about the wait! My friends are bit crazy and have no clue that they are super morons... Anyhow, school started back for me and I'm just now getting to finishing this chapter! Several shows and episodes went into the making of this chapter. I know the episodes I'm using, I just forgot what they were called but if your the die-hard NCIS lover that I know you are, you'll be able to remember the episodes from what little bit of the plot I did use. If you don't mind, I'd love for you guys to review the chapter and let me know if it was any good or what could be improved. I've also got an idea from my bro about a new story. It was going to be a NCIS: LA fic but I used the premise (and a couple episodes from <span>Meitantei Conan<span>) to make a Closer & Criminal Minds crossover called The Last Time. The crossover is very minimal (more Closer than CM), I promise. I'm only on the 16th set of lyrics out of 32 with the song, so I'm halfway done! I promise I'm trying to wrap things up with this, but I'm not a good writer so it takes me a bit longer than some of the others who I think are really good.**_

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><p>Gibbs and McGee followed Ms. Winters into the living room through the foyer. The foyer itself was filled with pictures of her and her late husband, Zachary. She looked so happy (and about 75 pounds lighter) in the pictures. As they passed the stairs that led upstairs just outside the foyer's door, the stairwell was filled with photos of her mother, her younger brother Blake, her late husband Zachary, and all the photos that proved she was still mourning.<p>

"I'm Special Agent Leroy Gibbs and this is Special Agent Timothy McGee. I'm sorry to bother you so late, ma'am, especially so close to Christmas. Do you know a Daniel MacAlswerth, Ms. Winters?" asked Gibbs, as he sat down on the antique sofa. McGee sat in the chair to the left of Gibbs, beside the coffee table.

"Yes, I know him. He and I went to school together. He was a grade ahead of me. May I get you some tea, Agent Gibbs, Agent McGee?" Savannah inquired.

"No, thank you, ma'am. Do you have a cup of coffee?" asked Gibbs in response to the hospitality.

"No problem. _Agent McGee_, would you like some tea or coffee?" Savannah asked pointedly.

"Some tea would be nice, Ms. Winters. And I'm sorry if I offended you earlier." Tim said as he looked down to his hands writhing about.

Ms. Winters snuffed her nose as she left into the kitchen.

About ten minutes later, Ms. Winters returned with a tea tray, complete with a floral pot full of tea, matching creamer bowl, sugar bowl, two empty cups on matching plates, and a different yet similar floral print mug full of coffee. She sat down on a couch to the right of McGee, across from Gibbs

Ms. Winters closed her eyes, let out a sigh, and began, "And I apologize for my ghastly behavior at the door."

"So, Ms. Winters, Daniel MacAlswerth?" reminded Gibbs.

"Oh, yes, I know him. Why do you ask?"

"How about a Lance Corporal Simon Vega, do you know him?" McGee asked.

"Yes, I knew him. He died, what, three, four years ago?" replied Winters as she took a sip of tea.

"How did you know the Lance Corporal?" pushed Gibbs.

"He was a very dear friend I had made a couple of years ago, I believe it was 2003. After my husband, Zachary, died, I didn't do much socializing, but we meet at one of my stores here in Maryland. He was quite a persistent man, always wanting me to go on dates–movies and such–with him. I found him attractive but I'm quite the independent person. He was _too_ chivalrous. I like a chivalrous man, but he was just impossible. I told him that I wanted to be friends and that was it. He took news very hard, but he understood. I hear he was murdered." She took a sip of her tea. "I remember a Pacino or Pachanko," she said, squinting her grey eyes, in an effort to remember, "from NCIS coming up here and asking me questions. What does this have to do with MacAlswerth?" She asked pointedly to Gibbs.

"Could it have been a _Christopher Pachi_ that came and visited you?" asked Tim, trying to help her remember.

Gibbs just sat there and sipped on the coffee.

"Yes! That's right! Pachi! He was a quiet man, very nervous around me for some reason. I told him that on the date and time in question, I was in Japan visiting my brother at Camp Fuji. He was all that I had left." Savannah said to Tim as she put her cup and plate down on the coffee table between the three of them.

Gibbs looked silently at her as he sipped his coffee. He was processing the information that was Ms. Winters' actions and behaviors.

"We're not sure if this has anything to do with MacAlswerth, but Daniel has been kidnapped and we were just wondering if you had had any contact with him since high school." Tim said in a voice that was slightly insecure of how to proceed.

Savannah looked horrified. "Oh my! He's been kidnapped! Oh dear! No, I'm sorry I can't be of any help. You see even in high school, I was distant from everyone in my school. I knew him, but I doubt he knew me. Now, my brother would have known, but alas, he was killed in…Wait, I'm sorry. I forgot! MacAlswerth was the agent in Japan who worked my brother's murder. I did talk to him briefly, about who would want to kill Blake, but I didn't know the members of his platoon that well so I couldn't be of any help. I was glad that it was MacAlswerth, because that meant Blake would have someone familiar working his case. I believe his case is cold as well."

…

"What is so important that you couldn't have walked up to my office and told me, DiNozzo?" Vance said incredulously. After all, DiNozzo should have come up to his office and reported, not make him come down to the bullpen.

"Well, I couldn't leave Alex all alone with the evidence, now could I, Director?" Tony responded with a smirk.

"Director Leon Vance, what a pleasure it is to meet you, sir." Alex said as he threw out his left hand.

"Don't ask him how, Director. I've been trying to figure out where he gets his information for _years_." Tony cut off the director, recognizing the look of "_How in the hell does he know who I am?"_ written all over the Director's face.

Leon shook the man's hand. "So what did you find?"

Tony pulled up the photos on the plasma side by side. On the left of the screen was Petty Officer Morrison's fatal bullet and on the right was Petty Officer Winters' fatal bullet. "Notice anything similar, Director?"

"Yeah, colored casings. Very good Mr. Kurucz for noticing that. Tony, bring your C.I. to MTAC. We're going to make a call to Osaka."

…

In MTAC, Vance was standing between the two men, DiNozzo on his right and Alex on his left. "Do you have the connection?" Vance asked the tech.

"Yes, sir. They are connecting…now."

"Director Kouno, how are you feeling tomorrow?" Vance said with a chuckle.

"I'm just fine, sir. How is yesterday?" Kouno replied with the same wry chuckle.

"I have a request. Could you please coordinate with the local prefects and see if any crimes had a colored bullet? As you can see by these photos in MacAlswerth case file, the bullets were dyed." The two photos of the different colored bullets were shown on the screen for the Kouno's benefit. "We're hoping to connect them to any other cases, open or closed, within the area."

"Very well, sir. I'll have them ready for you within 5 hours." Kouno replied with a quick bow. The connection went dead.

…

As Tony and Alex walked out of MTAC, Alex started to say something, but quickly looked back down as he walked down the stairs.

"And the answer to what you are going to do for Christmas: you're spending it with me." Tony said to Alex, who stopped dead in his tracks.

"Ya know, Anthony, if I didn't know better–"

"You don't." responded Tony, very abruptly.

…

A car pulled up into Mr. Popava's driveway: a 2003 burgundy Chevy Malibu–which happened to coincide with the information Ziva obtained from Abby.

"NCIS! Freeze!" said Ziva as she appeared from underneath the wooden stairs leading to the house, gun drawn and locked on her target.

Lenka was not shocked to see a federal agent, but he knew that it would mean giving up his visa, or worse, his life. He wasn't the sharpest blade of the set, but he knew that resisting wouldn't do anything good for him. He threw his hands up inside the car and allowed Ziva to open the car door to cuff him. She didn't say anything to Mr. Popava as she drove back to NCIS headquarters.

…

Ziva had escorted Lenka Popava to an interview room and left him to stir for Gibbs' questioning, staying in the control room, waiting for Gibbs to start.

...

McGee came to his desk, noticing the dinner invitation standing in his keyboard. _What is this? It smells…_expensive_. DiNozzo, what are you doing? Are you trying to get Jethro jealous? Because, if you are, you're doing a damn good job of making Jethro pissed. Ugh! What am I going to do with you?_

There had been several points in the three years prior to him and Jethro started their relationship that he had be curious to the motives of DiNozzo. Yeah he found him attractive, but his–in the immortal thoughts of Kate–epitomization of the average college frat co-ed was not something that Tim found attractive, ever. It was probably due to the torment he received as a nerd in high school…

The most vivid memory of Tony _not_ mincing words was that time when Arnett's "wife" was trying to get out of the parking garage and left him dangling on the edge. He remembered that he said, "_I love you,"_ as McGee had helped hoist him back on the side of the living, but he had often wondered just how true the words were spoken.

He decided to open the invitation written in a beautiful caligraphy:

You are cordially invited to spend the entirety of

Tomorrow, December 23,

with Anthony DiNozzo.

How do you respond?

YES NO

It was simple, sweet, and pure. McGee didn't sense any malicious intent from it nor did he get the idea that it was some rip-off from a movie, which made him happy–for some unknown reason…

Alex came up to McGee. "Hello, Tom E. Gemcity. May I have an autograph?" He flashed his "award winning" smile along with both of McGee's books.

"And to whom do I make them out?" Tim said with a smile in return.

"Alexander Kurucz, please. Thank you," Alex said with a twinkle of his eye. "Ya know, Timothy McGee, if I were you, I'd accept that invitation. He's got a really nice day planned out. I should know." Alex said with a slight drop of pitch as he looked away from the desired agent.

"So how do you know Tony?" McGee asked as Alex maneuvered away from the desk.

"I'm a lawyer. He was a cop in Baltimore. The standard work relations that grew into a friendship."

"And how do you know my name?"

"I'm like a magician; I never reveal my sources or tricks." Alex said as he sat in a chair and put up his right hand.

"Well, then, should I be worried that you have such knowledge? I'm going to assume that if you know my name and side business, then you're bound to have sensitive information on the other members of my team. And just for _your_ information, Jethro doesn't respond well to threats to his team." responded Tim as he started clacking on his keyboard.

"Are you really performing a search on me, _in front of me_, without me being a suspect in your investigation? Do you really not know the illegality what you are doing? Or are you really that stupid?" Alex said incredulously. "Well, I can't really blame you… You've got protect the ones you love. I'll let you slide this time, Ma-Gee." He said with a breathless sigh.

"The only question I have is," started McGee as he stopped keying in the desired information, "_If_ I were to spend the day with Tony tomorrow, how would we get out of work? We have two kidnapped NCIS agents on leave from Osaka, no clues as to who is the kidnapper, our shooter downstairs probably won't give us any information as for whom he is working, and I don't know how Jethro is going to handle me going out with Tony. If you can explain all this to me, I'll be glad to consider it."

Alex sat there for several moments, impressed with the nerd's logical processes. He could now see why McGee was attractive to Tony, his mind. That's probably what all of McGee's ex's, including Abby, loved about him. Alex took a deep breath, got up, and waltzed over to McGee.

"Your kidnapper is from the same area that Ms. Winters and MacAlswerth are from, Catherine is collateral damage, leverage for Daniel. She, and I emphasize _she_, is more concerned with finding the killer of Blake Winters than anything else. She is probably a former lover, or at least someone who admired him from afar." He stepped away from McGee with that final line and turned around. "She wants justice. She's not going to kill them unless justice is not served. I could have been killed. The man on that screen is more than able to put a bullet through my right pectoral to pierce my heart, but he chose to put a gaping hole in my left pectoral muscle, which was a more difficult shot, and left me alive. Leon has asked the director of NCIS Osaka to gather all information with a similar MO to the two murders of the late Petty Officers from the surrounding prefects. This won't end nasty and the boy will have his parents back, if and only if, you find the serial killer that killed them. As to Gibbs, ask if you can visit–where was it?–Botetourt County, with Tony. That way you can _do work_ and get the answers to the questions you have for Tony, all at the same time."

Tim looked at the lawyer with an open jaw. He was absolutely impressed with the deduction of the blonde man sitting across from him. "Well, a deal's a deal. I'll convince Gibbs to let Tony and I go research Blake Winters' personal life in Botetourt County to try and find this elusive lover." Tim said with a sigh. _But how did he deduce all that? With the lack of evidence, there is no way to prove that the kidnapper wouldn't kill them. And how does he know that the kidnapper is a woman? I'd absolutely hate to be on the other side of the trial, with this guy._


	17. Chapter 17

Love's a Game I Can Play

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><p><em><strong>Having a rough time at school... But Gibbs and the gang make for a good distraction! Sorry I'm not posting every day, school has to come first... but I had a break (class canceled – Yay!) and wrote this out. Please read and review, questions and comments are so nice to know that you, the fans, are enjoying the story!<strong>_

* * *

><p>Inside interrogation, Gibbs was having a hell of a time trying to get this guy to talk. He knew that he spoke Russian and he was fluent in Russian. He attempted to lessen the language barrier, but this guy simply would <em>not<em> talk. Deciding to _not_ kill him, he decided to go see his Timmy, maybe he had some good news.

…

Walking back to the bullpen, he saw Tim and Alex talking.

"Leon has asked the director of NCIS Osaka to gather all information with a similar MO to the two murders of the late Petty Officers from the surrounding prefects. This won't end nasty and the boy will have his parents back, if and only if, you find the serial killer that killed them. As to Gibbs, ask if you can visit–where was it?–Botetourt County, with Tony. That way you can do work and get the answers to the questions you have for Tony, all at the same time."

_Questions? What questions does Tim have for Tony?_ Gibbs began to ponder. _No, I'm going to trust him. He has earned it, and I'm going to give it to him._

"So tell me what you're thinking, Alex," Gibbs ordered.

"Well, Gibbs, I'm thinking that the kidnapper is a stalker of Blake Winters, since they didn't do anything until he was murdered and his case had gone cold. I'm thinking the kidnapper is a woman based on the assumption, as I'm sure you hold the same assumption, that Daniel and Catherine are both still alive. If it were a man, I doubt they'd have this patience to wait so long without any fruit. I suggested to Tim here to take Tony with him tomorrow down to Botetourt County and do a little investigation into the women in Winters' life. You know how small towns love to talk," Alex said with a wink towards McGee, acknowledging he was taking on his lover with care.

Jethro looked hard at Alex, narrowing his eyes, trying to detect what Alex was hiding from him. He couldn't stand that Alex seemed to have all the answers when his team was working their collective ass off to find them. The smile that was written on Alex's face had to be a damned good smile to convict because Gibbs was divided in his decision to let Tim go with Tony. _Trust him. He deserves it, remember? Don't let this blow up in your face again. You promised him that you would work on your problems, and here is one of your major problems._ "Fine, it's a good idea. Go. Take the rest of the night off, I'll see you when I get home, ok?" Gibbs said with a gentle smile, trying not to let the terror of distrust ruin his disposition.

…

Tony was up in MTAC with Director Vance when his phone vibrated. The text read: _Got Tim to agree to tomorrow. If you screw this up, I'll put you in a world of hurt. Understand, master? -.- Alex_

_Thank you so much. I'll try not to mess things up. Almost done here, wanna grab a bite?_ Tony texted back to Alex in response.

"Are we boring you, Agent DiNozzo?" Vance asked with his eyes still on the screen.

"No, sir. Alex was just letting me know he was getting ready to leave. And I told him we were almost done," DiNozzo lied. He felt guilty for lying but he didn't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet. He wasn't anywhere near out of the woods just yet, and he knew that things were going to get hairy tomorrow.

"Very well, you may go. I'll have the files on your desk tomorrow. Go home, and thank your CI for his help today. Maybe you can convince him to come work for us. He certainly has the investigative eye. Who knows I might just put him on your team. He seems to have a lot of contacts."

"I'll ask if you want me to, Director. Thanks for letting me leave early today," Tony said walking out of the door with a slight blush.

Vance didn't answer. He continued his conversation with the senator on the screen.

…

Back downstairs, Alex was sitting behind Gibbs' desk actually conversing with him. DiNozzo stopped to stare at such a sight.

"So, why are you here?" Gibbs looked curiously at Alex, who was leaning back.

"Tony asked, I couldn't say no," Alex responded simply. He knew this was an interrogation in its most fundamental state, no matter how relaxed it the atmosphere felt.

"So, he asked, you came, no questions asked? And you happen to have information on the Director of NCIS and all of us? Who do you work for, Mr. Kurucz? And what is your interest in Tony?"

"Yes. Yes. The State of Maryland. He is my master; he asks and I obey. My interest is something further but unless he wants it, I do not have the right to move forward," Alex answered, perfectly aware of Tony by this point, but he didn't care, it was the truth.

Gibbs looked narrowly at Alex. He was trying to discern if Alex was lying or not. He wasn't shaking; he wasn't looking away–something that few people did with him; and he wasn't loud. He couldn't waste any more time. "Alright, go home. I'll see you tomorrow," Gibbs turned around and saw Tonya with a look of shock on his face.

"Home? Where's home, Gibbs?" Alex asked with a droop in his speech pattern, using his brown eyes to search the older man's eyes for the answer.

…

"What was that about?" Tony asked in the elevator, letting it continue its descent for the moment.

"Nothing, sir, just a master asking questions of a sub, and a leader protecting his team–nothing more, nothing less," Alex said with hurt eyes, begging Tony not to push the line of questioning any further.

Tony knew that something was the matter with Alex, he had never seen this side of the man before. He honestly didn't know how to react. He was used to women using the same technique to con him into doing something, but the tears that he saw Alex holding back told Anthony to stop, which he did.

"So, Alex, where would you like to go for dinner? I know this great ba–"

"I want to go back to the hotel. I don't want you to see me this way. It's not appropriate," interrupted Alex, with his right hand covering his face.

Tony grabbed his friend, pulled him to his shoulder, and heard the loudest wail that he had ever heard come from a man. He recognized the wail. It was the sound of a broken heart still beating. What had he done?

"Alex, you're my friend. I'm allowed to see you in your worst state. It's only fair, anyway. You've seen me at my worst several times. I'll take you back to the apartment and we'll order some take out, how does that sound?" Tony offered. Maybe spending tomorrow with Tim wasn't the best idea he had had. If it put Alex in this much pain.

…

That night, Gibbs got home around 2200. Tim had waited up for him and was waiting on the sofa for him.

Tim heard the door open and ran to the door like a little puppy. He greeted Jethro with a big slobbery kiss. Jethro couldn't help himself when he started to undo the tie Tim was wearing. There were no words, simply moans of pure elation from Tim as Jethro started to nip at Tim's neck.

"Oh, Jethro! This case is driving me insane! It's so complicated! Colored bullets–who would have thought!" Tim finally exclaimed as the two lovers calmed down and started to eat the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Tim had made upon returning home.

"Well, it's about to get worse. I saw one of the other agents put five more case files on Tony's desk right before I left. Not that he's going to be going through them in the morning, remember? He's going with you to get clues into Winters' personal life back in Botetourt County," Jethro mentioned to Tim as he finished up his second sandwich.

"Ok, then who will be going through them? I figure you're going to keep an eye out on Alex. Ziva will probably try to work on Popava again. I guess Ducky will help you with the files," Tim postulated as he scarfed down a third one.

"Have I told you lately, Tim, that I love you and your big brain," Gibbs said with a small kiss to Tim as he got up to go to bed. Talking to Popava had been exhausting.

…

Daigh, Nathan, and David were back to the hotel. They had gone to see the National Christmas Tree, ridden the Metro several times, gone to a little barista Nathan frequented, and had a good day overall. David was tired–to the appreciation of both Daigh and Nathan. They could finally talk without the little one constantly looking between the two.

"So, did you have fun today, Mr. Moore?" asked Agent Blankenship as he poured a cup of coffee.

"It's Daigh, and yes, I had fun. I got to spend time with my nephew," Daigh responded as he took the offered cup from Agent Blankenship.

"I'm glad. He looks so peaceful when he's asleep," Nathan said with a smile as he observed David lying on the other bed.

"Do you have kids, Agent Blankenship?" Daigh asked as he too watched his nephew sleep peacefully.

"It's Nathan, and no, unfortunately, I can't have any. But I've always wanted a little boy and a little girl."

"That's a shame. I understand; I can't either. Although, my wife has a son from another marriage," Daigh lied. His wife had been raped when she was 22. He met her two years after the incident and looked after the little boy ever since. He had been blessed that he was still married to her and the boy was now just about to turn 18 within a couple weeks.

"Well, tomorrow, you two get to go back to Agent Gibbs' house with Agent Yamato. Go ahead and get some sleep. I'll watch out for things," Nathan said with a little sorrow, but he was used to it. It never failed–whenever he flirted with a guy, they were _always_ married men, and he just didn't have the heart to break up the marriage no matter how bad the relationship.

…

Things were looking up for the MacAlswerths. No more prodding or slicing for Daniel's body, and no more bright lights in a dark room interrogation techniques for Catherine. They were together. All they could do was sit there in the basement together. They took turns sleeping, but nothing would help Catherine sleep. It was the day before Christmas Eve, and she hadn't seen her only son in over a week. "All I want for Christmas is to hold Ánrothán, Lord. Please, that is all I ask." She looked around a moment and saw a small window, just above her head. She looked out the window and saw a clear night with all the stars illuminating around a bright full moon.

She had faith, but it was slowly waning. A solitary tear flowed from her left eye.


	18. Chapter 18

With a Cool and Confident Kind of Air

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><p><em><strong>So sorry about the belated update. I wanted to spend time with my brother this weekend before he left for college and we had fun. Thanks to all my loyal readers! We're on the downhill trek of the story and we're going to see just what DiNozzo has in store for McGee. Gibbs has to confront Alex about how he knows all this information about his team, and I think y'all are going to love his responses. Tobias will be making an appearance in the next few chapters and I think I'm going to have Ziva get ahold of a Mr. Damion Werth! Please Read and Review!<strong>_

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><p>Ziva woke alone, as usual. She hated being alone. She got out of bed, took a shower, and got dressed for another day at NCIS. On her way, she decided to get coffee for the rest of her team–a black for Gibbs, a double French vanilla espresso with a double shot and whip cream for McGee, a black with two creamers for DiNozzo, and a caramel espresso for her. She came in at 0530. It was going to be a long day, especially when she was going to have to try to get Popava to talk. She had noticed something in her time there at the agency that Gibbs had gotten a bit softer around the edges after he started dating Tim. He was kinder, a bit. He was still that gunny that he had always been but something was different. Maybe it was that Gibbs always had that kindness in him, and it just took Tim to bring it out of him again. Either way, she was happy with what she saw. Now it was her turn to step up to the plate to work Popava over. But first, she was going to need a bit of information, and that was why she needed to be at work earlier than normal.<p>

…

Alex found himself in bed, with his clothes gone, his sling off his arm, and the bandages were off his wound. _Well, at least I'll get to see Ducky again_, he thought with a weary smile. He found a pair of boxers and put them on to keep things from getting drafty downstairs. Things didn't help much when he saw DiNozzo wrapped up in the quilt with his shirt off. He shifted his brown hair back out of his face. _I need to pull my hair back, but I need two hands, I think I'm just going to get it cut. It's a bit longer than I like it…_ Alexander thought as he yawned.

Alex got out of the bed and looked at the clock: 5:30. _Ugh! What a headache. There's no way I'm going to be any use to them today. Especially with what happened last night,_ Alex thought as he went to the kitchen in the penthouse room he had reserved. Cooking breakfast with his only his left hand was a pain in the ass. It took him thirty minutes to cook a single egg, scrambled, with two slices of bacon, two pieces of toast and to grab the jelly out of the fridge. He had started the coffee around 5:45, in hopes that Tony would be up by 6:00. As he spent that thirty minutes making the breakfast for his master, he tried to remember the events of the previous night:

"_What's wrong?" Tony inquired between Alex's sobs in the elevator._

"_Nothing. I just have *sob, sob* missed you so much." Alex cried out into Tony's shoulder. They were still in the elevator at NCIS. It dinged and opened at the level below them with several other agents staring at the sight before them._

"_Friend I hadn't seen in years. He's got some emotional problems," Tony said coyly as the other agents just to get them to catch the elevator after they got off it._

_Alex was still bawling when Tony put him his car, on the passenger's side, since Alex was no shape to __drive to the hotel. He remembered the drive home, vaguely enough that Tony had stopped at a butcher's shoppe and got two steaks, just regular cuts, and that they were silent–minus the sound of Alex crying. To let Tony see him such a state, _he remembered_, was absolutely the worst thing in his mind. He never let anyone see his emotions, for they were dangerous to other people, but he couldn't help letting Tony see him–it was spontaneous, he just had to let it out. When they got to the hotel room, Tony saw his bottle of Jack Daniel's–half-empty, nonetheless–and let out an audible sigh._

"_I thought you quit drinking, Alex," Tony said._

_He remembered shooting him a nasty look and remembered saying something, just not what he said. Tony helped him to the couch in the penthouse suite and cooked the steaks. Alex remembered calling out wanting mashed potatoes to eat. Tony must have found the instant kind–for even Tony knew how to read directions on a box–because when they ate, he commented that they were a bit stiff and needed a bit more water. By that point, after they had eaten, Alex remembered that Tony moved to the seat on the couch next to him. Alex remembered, with a bit of a struggle, leaning back onto Tony on the couch. Tony had parted his legs, bending his right leg and placing his left leg on the floor, allowing Alex to put his back on his chest. Alex remembered Tony running his fingers through his hair, which almost lulled him off to sleep. Tony simply listened to Alex as he talked about his childhood because one of the cases he was working on reminded him of it, a prospect of a new job, and finally, his love life, which seemed to be nonexistent–much like his own after Jeanne._

"_Oh! by the way, I have a job offer for you from the Director," Tony jolted with the memory._

_Alex tilted his head back and down Tony's shoulder to give him that "Oh, really, now?" look. "And when would he have made that offer, Tony?" Alex asked incredulously. His information on Leon Vance was some of the best and all the evidence in the file he had compiled pointed that Vance was not like that._

"_He likes your passion, and your abilities. I haven't told him of your best ability. I'd rather him see that one himself one day. I think he'd rather like it," Tony said with a smirk._

_He tried to remember how he got to bed,_ but the toast was done and he had to come back to reality.

…

Tony woke up to the smell of the coffee dripping from the filter. He fluffed his hair and yawned, looking around the room. He scratched his chest. "Where's my shirt? I'm in bed? ALEX!" Tony yelled.

"In the kitchen, Tony! Breakfast is ready!"

Tony removed the quilt that he had apparently wrapped around himself while he was sleeping, to reveal that his boxers were still on, letting Tony sigh in relief. It's not that he wouldn't sleep with Alex; he just didn't want to do it while being unaware to them. Deciding that the boxers were just right for breakfast with Alex, he sprang up out of the bed and rushed into the kitchen to sit at the island where his breakfast sat.

"Is all that for me?" Tony said greedily. He rubbed his hands together and began to pick up a fork, when he noticed the faint trace of a smile wisp across Alex's face, leaving almost as soon as it appeared. "So what are you going to do today, Alexander?"

Tony looked at Alexander with a questioning look, but with a bit of concern as well. "I guess I'm going to spend the day with Gibbs and Officer David looking over the case files that should be on your desk by now," Alex responded with a touch of humility.

Tony let out an audible "huh?" and finished the sandwich he had made out of the food provided.

"There's a fresh suit in your size in the wardrobe," Alex stated as he took the plate and placed it in the sink. "'How do I know?' is the question on your tongue. Tony, you're as predictable as a child," Alex said as he turned back around staring at a Tony with a gaping mouth. "You'll let flies in if you don't close your trap…" Alex said, tauntingly, as he sauntered off into the bedroom to get dress, and to get his sling on his arm. It was _killing_ him.

…

Gibbs woke up to the smell of coffee as well, pulling him downstairs to the kitchen. "Someone's in the kitchen with Dina, someone's in the kitchen, I kno-o-o-ow," Gibbs sang as he heard the clanging of various platters and mugs that rang out in symphony with the closing of cabinet doors.

"Eat up, Jethro. I made your favorite: biscuits and gravy with eggs over easy," Tim said as he placed a gentle kiss on his boss/lover's cheek. "After the night you had, I thought I'd surprise you with breakfast."

"Thanks, Tim," Jethro said as he looked over the plate before him. _Well, today's the day. I've got to prove to Tim that I trust him. And as much as it pains me, I'm going to not pry into matters at work with that Alex fellow. But I will ask him how in the hell he knows so damned much about my team,_ Jethro thought as he cut into the biscuits and gravy.

*knock, knock*

"I'll get it," said Tim as he got up from the table. "Good morning, Agent Yamato," Tim greeted. "Good Morning D-A-V-I-D" Tim signed to David.

A big smile swept over the little boy's face as he saw Tim. "Good Morning Tim." David had thought about a sign to give Tim for his name, and was proud of how smart he was about it–he made the letter "T" in his right hand and stuck out his left hand, palm up. He then drug the "T" across his left palm as if he were writing, because Tim told him that he was a "write person". David looked around and saw Gibbs eating at the table, rushing to the older man and latching onto his leg. Jethro laughed, picked him up, and pointed to the food to ask if David was hungry. Daigh walked in behind Agent Yamato with Agent Blankenship laughing and waving good-bye. "Thanks, Nathan!" Tim yelled out towards the other agent.

"No problem, Tim! Remember, you owe me!" Nathan called out as he was getting into his car to head over to NCIS.

…

Agent Yamato, Daigh, and David were all eating breakfast together as Gibbs and McGee were leaving. "Going so soon, sir?" Agent Yamato asked Gibbs.

"Yeah, we need to head in early. Got about five other case files to look at today, and Ti-," Gibbs stopped for a brief moment, "Tim, here, has to go to Botetourt County with Tony and I'm sure he's already there with Alex."

Isuma looked at his watch. _0645_. "Call Tsubame-san, if you need any translations. I understand that those case files came from several prefects in Japan. She should be at the office as well, within 15 minutes at the latest," he told the two as they stood at the door. "I will be in around 0800, with these two, if that is alright with you, Agent Gibbs?"

"You know how to clean dishes?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then there's nothing to worry about, Isuma." Gibbs said as he departed for headquarters.

…

Snow White walked down the stairs to the basement alone. "So my darlings, how are we this morning?"

"Tired," responded Catherine, "and I think that Daniel needs medical attention. He passed out about 0330 from his wounds."

"I figured he would at some point," replied Snow White in a cool manner, "so I brought the Doc with me this morning."

"Madame, how could you do this to this man," asked the doctor, in reference to his right index finger.

"Simply. I needed proof of life that I could send in a box."

"Well, I will need to take him to my private facility. I don't have the tools to revive him with me," responded the doctor, trying to hide the fear and disgust of the woman in front of him.

"Very well, Doc. But she goes to, under a blindfold," Snow White said. She couldn't afford losing the only leverage on Daniel she had. Now that they had spent some of the night together, there was a miniscule amount of compassion in her, and she didn't want to be made out completely malevolent.


	19. Chapter 19

Just as Long as I Stay in My Own Little Corner

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><p><em><strong>Things are picking up, Gibbs is concerned if Alex poses a threat to his team, and more importantly DiNozzo, since he tends to have all the information on them. This is a bit longer than I wanted but I like the chapter. Also, <span>in no way, shape, or form am I psychologist or psychiatrist. I have no clue as to what leads people into the BDSM lifestyle. This is just my personal writing and this is Alex's reasoning.<span>**_

_**IF you know someone who is in an abusive relationship, PLEASE HELP them see that they do not have to take it nor deserve it. I DO NOT support abuse. **_

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><p>On the way to the office, Gibbs called Tobias. "Hey, Tobias, was wondering if you could pull a file on someone for me. I've got a question about someone."<p>

"_Gibbs, it's 7 in the morning, what in the hell *yawn* do you want? Don't you think it's too damned early in the day to *yawn* start bothering me?"_

"No. Listen are you at work?" Gibbs inquired.

"_You're a cold-hearted bastard, you know that right? Yeah, I fell asleep at my desk. Who is the person you want me to run? … … … Are you serious? I can't do that! He was a damn good agent, Jethro. Why he quit, I'll never know. What has he gotten into?" Tobias inquired over the phone as he jumped up._

…

"Gibbs. Tim."

"Alex. DiNozzo."

"McGee. Gibbs."

"Tony. Alexander."

The four men greeted each other as they all arrived at the building together. "So, Gibbs, what's the plan of action for today?" inquired Alex sheepishly with a devilish smile creeping onto his face.

"You already know, why are you asking?" Gibbs looked at him with icy blue eyes. Gibbs knew that Alex was trying to play a game, but he realized that he couldn't keep up with Alex's mind, not this early in the morning even with coffee.

Getting into the elevator, Gibbs looked at Tony and Tim. "What are you two doing?"

"We're getting on the elevator to go to our floor?" Tony asked unsure of himself.

"No, you're not. You and McGee are going to Botetourt County. Go investigate Blake Winters' personal life," Gibbs ordered. "And don't come back until you've exhausted every lead. Even if that means you have to stay the night, ya understand?"

A happy DiNozzo and a cautious McGee both said a unison "Yes, sir" and strolled back to Tony's car. He was going to do his best to keep his mouth shut. _Maybe I should let Tim drive, that way if I need help, I can text Alex,_ Tony thought. "Hey, Tim, you wanna drive?"

…

Alex closed his eyes. He was expecting something, he could sense it…

*click*

"Alright, out with it. Who do you work for?"

"I told you–" Alex began as he opened his eyes.

*SLAM*

"Do not lie to me," Jethro said as he slammed the wall as he moved so close to Alex that their noses touched. He pulled his right arm up to trap Alex between him. "I'm going to ask you once more: Who do you work for? Or should I call Anthony? What would he think about this?"

Alex's composure dropped as soon as Gibbs mentioned Tony. To hear his full name, made Alex's heart sink. "No, I don't want him to know. He wouldn't like the memories," Alex said as he closed his eyes for a moment gathering his thoughts. "I used to be FBI; but by judging your demeanor, you probably found that information out either last night after Tony and I left or this morning. And judging by your volatile reaction, I'm betting it was this morning. Am I right, sir?"

"And why would you guess that, boy?" Gibbs questioned. As much as he and Tony were bickering over Tim, he would protect his team from someone trying to implant themselves.

"Well, I actually don't have an answer, but your rage is unmatched when it comes to the protection of your Team. Found that out from Tobias–my former boss," said Alex looking into the icy blue eyes that looked as though they belonged to an angry mother bear.

"Why is he your _former_ boss?" Gibbs questioned, staring into Alex's brown eyes, keeping his arms up, barring the man's escape.

"I was working an operation that concerned Baltimore, that ran over into Ton-"

"No, do not call him by his first name. You know better."

Alex winced. Gibbs was something different. Nothing Alex had read prepared him for this side of Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Blood began to rush through Alex. This man–barring his escape, seeing through all the flattery and illusions, meticulously searching his eyes for the truth–was of his dreams. "You're right, how forgetful of me. Sorry, sir. That concerned Master's case. I, uh, let my feelings cloud my judgment and that cost me everything I loved."

"Who was he?"

"While searching for a serial killer, I went to visit my sister. I hadn't seen her in 15 years. I got careless and ended up being followed by him. I walked in on him raping her. I told him several times to put down the gun he had with him. He waited about –I don't know, 30 seconds, maybe–before shooting Caroline. I, uh, ended up shooting him when he shot her," Alex said with a sigh and a snort of air out of his nose. "The prize of the family, she was. It was one thing to be the only son in a family of gypsies, but being gay…" his voice trailed as he looked down from Gibbs' eyes.

Gibbs straightened up and pulled back. Alex flinched in the anticipation of punishment for the lie–well, deception. He honestly did know better than to lie to Gibbs, Fornell had warned him. Alex wasn't expecting Gibbs to hug him. "I understand. But then again, you already know that, don't you?"

Alex pulled out of the embrace and turned around. "After that, I quit the FBI, and got a job with the state attorney general. A few years later, I remember a case with you in Baltimore, vaguely. To–, Master came over to my place on night and told me about this mysterious "Agent Gibb" from some NCIS… At that point, I contacted a n ex-boyfriend in the FBI and asked for your file. An interesting read, you are, but, in all honest, I like what isn't in the file better."

"So, can I trust you to be honest with me from here on out?" Gibbs asked as he turned Alex around by the shoulder and flicked the elevator back on to life.

"Yes sir."

There was a short pause between the two men. One anticipated, one thinking. Gibbs broke the silence. "I think I better call Tony and ask a question; don't you think so, Alexander?" Alex had an idea of the question in mind but didn't verbalize the answer. He didn't want to stop Gibbs from what he was about to do, so he simply nodded in agreement.

Gibbs pulled out his cell and used the speed-dial to call DiNozzo. "Hey, Tony, got a question."

_Tony didn't have a clue why he was using his first name, but he decided that he would stay safe. "Yeah, Boss? We've only been gone 20 minutes; it takes almost four hours to reach Daleville, ya know that right?"_

"I know, but that's not what I'm asking. Your CI needs a little more training than your providing, mind if I give him some?"

_Tony realized that this was a personal call. He didn't know what Gibbs was talking about, but he could tell by the tone of his voice this wasn't his boss speaking, it was another side of Gibbs. Tony looked over at McGee and regretted his word choices. "What kind of training, Jethro?" Upon hearing Tony say Jethro, McGee have Tony a "Go to Hell" look. " I thought he was perfectly well behaved. I mean after all, he's 38 and pretty good a–"_

"Not the kind of training I'm talking about, DiNozzo."

"May I speak with him," Alex spoke politely. Gibbs stared him down as if he wanted to finish the statement. "Sir?"

Gibbs handed the phone over to him. "Tony," Alex said cautiously as Gibbs squinted his eyes, "Gibbs doesn't think that I'm as obedient and submissive to you as I should be. If you give him permission to train me, he want your permission to punish me if and when he sees fit," Alex explained patiently to Tony, _who was still getting the evil eye from Tim._

"He's right, Tony," Gibbs said loud enough for Tony to hear as he grabbed the phone, "and put me on speaker. _You can stop giving him the evil eye Tim. It was a personal question that I don't care he used my name."_

"_Jethro, just don't break him, he's a friend that I–and the state of Maryland–value greatly. If you break him, you pay for the injuries, ok?"_

"Sounds like permission enough to me," Gibbs said as he looked to Alex.

…

"Hey, Ziva. How long have you been here?" Gibbs said as Alex followed him around like a puppy. "I'd like you to meet, Alexander Kurucz, a friend of Tony's."

"Nice to meet you, Alexander," Ziva said as she stuck out her hand.

"Nice to finally meet you, Offi–" Alex began.

*THWACK*

"A pleasure, ma'am." Alex corrected himself, shaking her hand.

Ziva squinted her eyes at Gibbs, unclear as to why he felt like gibing this young man a thwack to the back of the head. "Gibbs, here is your coffee. I apologize if it is a bit cold, I've been here for two and half hours. I thought we were going to come in a 0600. Where are Tony and McGee? I brought them a cup as well."

"Out traveling to Botetourt County," Gibbs replied as he took a swig of the now iced coffee. He took off the lid, spit what was in his mouth back into the cup, and threw it away. "Sorry, Ziva, Tim made breakfast and Isuma, Daigh, David and Blankenship all showed up this morning at 0630 at my mouse. I left while Isuma was still eating with Daigh and David. I'll pay you back for this."

_Strike two. Since when does Gibbs offer to pay back things,_ Ziva pondered. "Well, I'm going to interrogate our Russian friend."

"Alright, take Alex along. He has good insight to people, maybe he'll be of some help to you," Gibbs said as he sat down at his desk, staring at one of the boxes of files.

…

"May we go and see if Dr. Mallard is here, ma'am? My bandaging came off during the night and I'd like to hear another of his stories."

Ziva stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the offending word. She spun around and looked at Alex with the intent to kill. "I am not a _ma'am_. I have a name: it is Ziva David. You call me either Ziva or Officer David, preferably the ladder, but not _ma'am_, understand?

"It's latter, not _ladder_," Alex correct under his breath.

…

After wasting thirty minutes with Ducky, Ziva was beginning to lose what little patience she did have with _Alexander_. He was a person of high class, high standing, and a gentleman, but around Ducky and Gibbs, he was obedient, subservient, and quiet. He dressed flashy, but his personality around the two older men was that of a beggar or slave. _Just choose which you want to be_, Ziva thought as she was followed into interrogation, by the Hungarian.

"You're an avid gun collector, Mr. Popava. How many do you think we found at your house?" Ziva asked as she sat down in the chair, showing Lenka a photo of his gunroom.

"None of your business," Popava spoke with a heavy Russian brogue.

"_Agent_ Kurucz, how many guns do you think are in this photo alone?" Ziva asked Alex.

"I'd venture a guess around two hundred. Mostly hand guns, I see. But I also see several rifles and sniper scopes."

"187 guns in total, 32 of them rifles," Ziva spoke as she placed a hand on the photo, "and that was in a singular room."

"You can not hold me! I have done nothing wrong by owning them," Lenka said defiantly, although he was biting off a smile to Alex so close.

"No, but you did attempt on my friend's life here. I do not take kindly to that. So, I will ask you one question," Ziva spoke as she got up and walked around behind Popava. "Who sent you to shoot him?" she asked in a seductive tone in his ear.

"I give you name, you no kill me?" Popava asked in his broken English to Alex.

"That is all I want: a name and a reason a bullet was put through me," Alex said as he gave a crooked smile.

"The reasoning, that is simple. To stall NCIS looking for her. As to her name; I only know a Snow White. I meet her only once in a park, under large oak tree. Said 'If you maim their informant, I'll give you $30,000'. I am sending money back home from the guns I repair. I keep mass volume as parts and pieces. None of them whole," Popava said nervously. "May I go home, now? I have been here two days with no food and am hungry," Lenka responded somewhat frightened of Ziva and of the man across from him, for he had an absolutely devilish smiling showing across his face.

"Well, I think I can get you some food," offered Alex, "if you can work with a sketch artist to give us a rendering of this _Snow White_."

Ziva looked at him in shock and walked out of interrogation. "Excuse me a moment," Alex whispered to Lenka as he got up, rushing to catch up with Ziva, not waiting for his answer.

She had stepped outside and punched the nearest support beam. "Who are you to offer food to a criminal?"

"Ziva, I made him that offer because if we help him, he'll help us. You saw the frightened look on the man's face when I smiled at him–he was practically crawling in his own skin! As many cases I've worked, I've always found that the best way to obtain information is kindness–otherwise known as food; nothing fancy, just a burger, some fries, and a cola. It works every time to solve things quickly, quietly, and sometimes out of court."

…

Two hour and an artistic rendering of the allusive _Snow White_ later, Ziva and Alex were looking in the files that were rush delivered from NCIS Osaka. They had the _actual_ case files, which made Alex so much happier than photocopies of reports and redacted files. He hated looking through the files of evidence without the actual pieces in his hand. "It worked. I can not believe that the food worked," Ziva said for the fifth time in 30 minutes of looking through files.

"I told you it would work, Ziva," Alex said with a smile, proud of himself. "I know my criminals. You don't kill them before you can get the information. In order to use people effectively you: wine and dine, compliment and flirt–if you must, and then hang them in their own deception and information. Once you've hung them with words, then you can assassinate if it is your mission," Alex said as he looked up from the stack of evidence across the table in the conference room at Ziva.

"What? How–"

"Simple, I used to work for the FBI. I have to keep track of with and for whom my DiNozzo works. I wouldn't take very good care of him if I didn't."

"May I ask you a question, Alex," Ziva asked as she looked back down at the photo she was holding.

"Sure."

"What's your lifestyle like? I don't understand how one can give up so much for another and take physical abuse for a simple mistake."

"It's difficult. Mostly, I think, it's because I have such a desire to please, borderline hero's complex. My family didn't take an interest in my childhood, always preferring my sister," Alex said with a hitch his breathe. He wasn't expecting this to be the question she was going to ask. "I always wanted to please my mother and father, but they never approved of anything I did. Over time, the desire to please grew to encompass any of my friends; always looking for the recognition, praise, and affection that came with the obtaining the object of their affection. The abuse and possession is purely psychological, for me at least. I have never been loved. I was always abused both physically and verbally by the other guys my age. I don't feel loved without it." He looked away from the files over to the window to his left. "If I'm not put in my place, I will say something that will offend or hurt the ones I love. I've got a big mouth, I know this. Often in my cases, the defense attorneys will ask where my point is going because I'm not always on task." Alex stopped and hugged himself, looking toward Ziva as he asked, "He has no clue just how much I care, does he?"

"They shouldn't have hurt you; no one deserves that kind of treatment. You didn't have to take it. You are kind and considerate, much like Tim. And no, I don't think so, but I could be wrong," Ziva said with a soft smile.


	20. Chapter 20

All Alone, In My Own…Little Chair

* * *

><p><em><strong>A short chapter, but I think it ended at a good point. I finally got to the McNozzo part of the story and I liked it... a little too much :P I think I'm getting better, but idk. It just kind of flowed out of my mind this time. I like that it's getting easier to finish the story!<strong>_

* * *

><p>Ziva and Alex continued to comb through the evidence of all the five cases. Ziva looking at report after report, while Alex had started putting pictures of like shots together from the different cases. Some of the reports were in English, but most of them were in Japanese and she was trying to decipher them by comparing the English reports to the Japanese ones, but that was not working. "Ugh! I can <em>not<em> understand this language!" Ziva exclaimed as she threw the files down. Alex looked up from the photos.

"You mean to tell me that you can speak and write in Hebrew, which has non-Romanized letters, but you can't decipher Japanese? Well, it's not that I understand it either. T-" Alex paused. Saying that name so casually was something that he had always done. He didn't think that _he_ wanted to be called master, but then again, Alex had never asked what to call him.

"Tony what?" Ziva asked, seeing the visible stress that caused Alex by the name.

*click*

"Yeah, _Tony_ what, Alex?" Gibbs said as he walked in the room. Ziva turned around to see Gibbs walk in the room. She turned around and saw all the color that filled Alex leave as soon as he heard Gibbs' voice.

"Isuma is here now, I'll see if I can borrow him and have Tsubame watch David, or would you like to do that, Ziva?" Gibbs asked Ziva with a look that said, "Go, now".

…

Tim was driving the posted speed limit. They had made it to Harrisonburg with a rather quiet car ride, minus that phone call. Tony wasn't saying anything, and that was during the two and a half hours it took to _get_ to Harrisonburg. They stopped by JMU and talked to several of the teachers that had taught Blake Winters. All of the said the same thing: He was a highly motivated young man that didn't fare well in math but lead the football team to win the state championship. His manners were immaculate; he followed everything that he was told, but still bit of a joker. One teacher recalled that when he came into physics to give the day's lesson, a bucket of water fell on top of him. He noticed that Winters was high-fiving the guys around him and laughing louder than the rest. He taught class in his soaking wet clothes, using the bucket to demonstrate different principles. He then gave a pop quiz and surprisingly, Winters had done well. When he held Blake back after class, he told Blake not to ever that to him again.

On the road again, Tony tried to look several times at Tim, but to no avail.

"You've been awfully quiet this whole trip, Tony. What's wrong? You didn't even look at any of the girls back there, so I know there's _something_ wrong."

Tony looked at Tim driving. He smiled slightly and huffed. "I'm just glad I could spend some time alone with you. Do you remember when I was hanging from the garage when we were chasing Lt. Arnett's wife a few months ago? I said I loved you. I meant it. I really did. I know that every time I open my mouth I end up calling you a name…" Tony looked down to the floor of the car as he waited for Tim to respond.

Tim's eyes widened. He pulled over the car he was in so much shock that his supercomputer mind had trouble processing what the older man was saying. "Tony, how long?" Tim said as he looked over to him.

"Since I had that bout of plague, three years ago. When I thought I was going to die, the first person I thought of was you, only you. I don't know why, but ever since then I've been falling for you," Tony said reluctantly, waiting for Tim to absorb the information.

"But, Tony, you've been teasing and taunting me ever since I met you!" Tim said with a rising pitch in his voice.

"I know, I can't help it. I just… God, I wish Alex was here," Tony said with a sigh. "He always knows what to say and how to say it."

Tony unbuckled his seat belt and shifted his weight in his seat to where he could fully face Tim. With a tear, he put his hand around Tim's cheek, grabbing some of Tim's hair. He rubbed his thumb up and down Tim's cheek. "I love you, Tim," Tony whispered as the cars zipped past them on the interstate headed south towards Roanoke.

McGee felt awkward. He actually believed Tony when he said that. The entire day: not a movie quote, no change in his name, no sound at all. Tim felt his right hand creeping upward and stopping to lay itself on top of Tony's. He wouldn't admit it to Tony, but he had secretly wanted to steal a kiss from the man ever since he laid his eyes on him. McGee had learned over time that the picking and teasing Tony did was his way of showing affection to him. McGee knew that if Tony had wanted him, he would come on to him. But he didn't, causing McGee to wait. And time passed. As all things do with time–things erode, feelings degrade, memories become faint. Then there was Gibbs.

McGee's hand was still on Tony's hand, and had begun to rub it. "I can't," Tim said, as he looked into Tony's eyes in a low voice. Tim was having a really hard time turning down Tony's advance. He had wanted this for a long time, but Gibbs. He heart was racing and he could tell that he was panting even without hearing himself. Things were a lot harder to be faithful than he realized when this quiet, passionate, sexy Tony was in front of him, stroking his cheek. _I guess this is the side of Tony Jeanne fell in love with._

"Can't or won't, Tim?" Tony asked as he moved closer.

*ring, ring*

"Tony…"

*ring, ring*

"…are you going to get that?"

Tony's hand let go of Tim's hair to answer the call. "_What have you learned?"_ said the voice from the other side of the phone.

"Who is this?" Tony said when he heard a foreign woman's voice. His eyes flashed wide open.

"_My name, Snow White. Now: what have you learned as to who killed Blake?"_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Just one question: How on earth did Snow White get Tony's number?<strong>_


	21. Chapter 21

I Can Be Whatever I Want to Be

* * *

><p><em><strong>So sorry about not updating... crazy week that and I'm trying to find a job. I'm starting to write on my other story (but I haven't gotten to updating it either, sorry.) I've got three chapters to put up for it which makes me happy, plus I've followed the plot bunny all the way to the end of this story (she didn't want to write the middle, just the end... ugh!)<strong>_

* * *

><p>"First, I have a question: How did you get this number?" Tony asked as he looked at Tim.<p>

"_Does that really matter? All that matters is that I have it. I'm really good with computers. Almost as good as your friend, Timothy McGee."_

Tony's eyes opened wide. She knew of McGee, _If she knows of McGee's proficiency with computers, then she might know about the rest of the team. What am I going to do?_ Tony thought as his mind was racing for a way to get McGee's attention. He first started to readjust himself in the seat, facing the rear, then he literally crawled across Tim's lap and peered out the window (getting a couple shouts and yells from McGee), frantically searching to see if car was around that had stopped around them. He was afraid he was being watched. When he was satisfied with the absence of another parked car on the interstate, he grabbed his personal cell and started texting McGee.

«S.W. on phone! Text Abs and trace? She hackd NCIS!»

Tim's green eyes lit up and started looking around, just as Tony had done a few moments ago. He sent a text to Abby:

«Trace Tony's phone, now, Snow White! And NCIS is compromised, use one on of my sniffers to find her! Don't call, not safe…»

Tim went back to watching Tony try to handle the situation with Snow White. He texted Tony's personal phone to put it on speaker but Tony shook his head as he started to talk again.

"We've learned that he was just another victim. The casing that we found had been linked to five other cases in the surrounding prefects of Japan. We're combing through the evidence as we speak to find who would want him dead, ma'am," Tony said trying to placate her without divulging any other information to the kidnapper.

"_So what about your little __Hungarian__ friend you were having lunch with the other day? How is his shoulder? You know, my little Russian brothers were more than happy to help when they found out they could harm a Hungarian. He's an interesting fellow: former FBI, a prominent lawyer for the state of Maryland, and an interesting personal life. What is it that he calls you?_"

"Master, he calls me master," Tony grunted through his teeth

"_You know you're not the first person to whom he gave that title. Tell me, what do you know of the man?"_

Tony looked hurt: his eyes lost their sparkle, the anger in his face softened. "What do you mean that I'm not the first?"

"_The man is actually older than you think. His talent of acting is some of the best work I've ever seen. __His criminal past is actually more impressive than his work with the FBI._"

"That's impossible! If he had a criminal past, he would have never been in the FBI!"

Tim looked at Tony cautiously. He was scared, and Tim could see it. He sensed from the way Alex had talked about Tony that he cared deeply for the Italian, but he never knew that his partner was afraid of losing someone the way his eyes flared with anger as she obviously provoked him.

"_Well I assume that I have spoken too much on the subject. Back to Blake, I do want to see my family by Christmas Day and poor daddy ended up in a hospital, don't ask, it's not on the books so I want him to heal and see his little boy. His wife on the other hand has some degradation to her hearing, not at my hands, I should add. She's a fighter, that woman, but most of the Irish people I've met are fighters. I'll call you later today for an update, sweetie. Have fun, little lover boy!" *click*_

Tim's phone started to buzz.

«Got that crazy bitch! Traced and tapped. Abby XO»

Tim sent her a text saying what a good job she had done and locked his phone, trying to calm Tony down.

"I don't understand, he's only 38 years old! And he couldn't have gotten in the FBI if he had a criminal past!" Tim put his hand around Tony's back, trying to soothe him. He could see that he was starting to cry. Tim decided to start the car again and try to finish the trip to Daleville. They were just south of Lexington so they had about 30 minutes to drive.

…

*knock, knock, rattle, rattle*

"Who is it?"

"Gibbs, it's me, Abby."

"We'll finish this later," Gibbs said as he got up from the chair, looking down at a prostrate Alex, "now get up."

Alex got up without hesitation. Gibbs walked over to the door and opened to a frantic Abby. "Gibbs, Gibbs! Tony just got a call from our Snow White. She hacked into NCIS and found Tony's cell number and called him! They're in danger!" Abby said as she pulled and tugged at Gibbs.

"Abs, calm down. First question: How did you know that she had gotten in contact with DiNozzo?"

"She called him. Timmy texted me that NCIS had been compromised and that I needed to trace the call that was on DiNozzo's line."

"Second question: What there any threats to…" Alex started as he looked at the Goth.

"McGee didn't say. I used some of our programs that we had written and traced her to somewhere her in the D.C. area, but nothing conclusive. The 'owner' of the computer used was 'Marvel Kid' as in the comic books and the name on the warranty was Yelena Belova. I ran a search on _Yelena Belova + Marvel_ and came up with _Black Widow_," Abby told the two men.

"Do you have any idea what the _Black Widow_ refers to, Alex?" Gibbs said as he turned around facing the man.

"No, sir. The only black widow I know of is the spider," Alex said as he racked his brain for an explanation, "but maybe Tim would know."

"We'll let the two of them get back first."


	22. Chapter 22

I'm a Slave in Calcutta

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><p><em><strong>Guys! Thanks so much for sticking with the story and with me. I apologize for the late, late update. I've been going through a lot of stuff at home and school and just didn't have time for writing and for that I deeply apologize. But that is all behind me and I've got the rest of the story plotted out to help me complete the story in a timely fashion! Thanks for the great reviews, I greatly appreciate them.<strong>_

* * *

><p>Daniel opened his eyes to the sight of his loving wife sitting in a chair. "W'at hap'n'd?" he said deliriously as he winced in the pain that enveloped his whole body. "W'at day–"<p>

"Calm down, honey. It's only the day before Christmas Eve," Catherine said as she grasped Daniel's hand to let him know that she wasn't going anywhere.

"Really, Mr. MacAlswerth, you should conserve your strength. My torture sessions seemed to have taken more out of you than I realized. I apologize for that. I don't want you dead, I just needed some information, and you were very belligerent as to giving me what I wanted," Snow White called out as she moved her body from the wall outside the room.

"Βγει από εδώ τώρα, πόρνη σας!" Daniel said softly in Greek, but sternly nonetheless, despite the agony it caused him to even breathe, much less speak.

"What did you call me?" screamed Snow White as she moved toward the bed, only to be interrupted by Catherine, grabbing at her wrist to restrain her.

In one swift moment, Catherine had sensed the impending threat to her husband, promptly gotten up, and–as if by some ninja-like prowess–caught Snow White's left wrist with her right hand, drawing it down to the captor's side and stood facing the door as Snow White faced Daniel.

"He said 'Get of the room, you slut.' I'd advise you to listen to him, _my dear_," Catherine said with total calmness in her voice.

"Mrs. Van– White, please leave, you're causing the patient much distress," the doctor said as he entered the room, quietly and reverently to her.

Snow White flashed anger on her face as she yanked her hand out of the hold it was in and dusted her clothes off, as she walked towards the doctor at the doorway. "Under no circumstances are you to leave this hospital, Mrs. MacAlswerth. I will have security make sure of that."

"What makes you so sure that I'd try to leave with my husband here who passed out from not having an insulin shot and learning that he's an aneurism, _dearie_? I'd also not want to leave him here because his … condition is getting worse, it has been for years now, and there's nothing a doctor, nor I, can do about it," Catherine said with a fake smile painted on her face just long enough for the urge to kill this bitch dissipated from the foreground of her mind.

"Just see to it that he gets better. I'm already facing kidnapping charges of two federal agents. I'd rather that crime to murder of one, _or two_," Snow White said as she left the couple with the doctor alone.

"Cather–" Daniel started.

"Daniel, it's ok. I had to stand up to her. I just couldn't stand to see her treat you like that. Not after she had all this done to you," Catherine said as she brushed her fingers gently over his wounds. "I hope this NCIS agency can find out who did this for her."

…

"Tim, I'm sorry. I know I promised you the whole day, but…"

"Tony, I understand. He means a lot to you. And he's lied to you for a long time. It's just a shame that that information didn't come from him, but from our kidnapper," Tim said as he watched Tony get out of the car.

Tony closed the door to the car and walked in the airport. He wanted to know what else Alexander had lied about to him.

"Good luck, Tony. Be careful and be calm," Tim said to himself as he watched the older man race over to a ticket seller.

…

Tim made it to Daleville in about twenty minutes from the airport. His first stop would be Lord Botetourt County High School to talk to the principle, a Mr. James Adenerson.

"May I use your phone, please?" Tim asked the secretary.

"Why, if I may ask?" the secretary looked at him with an inquisitive look. Her voice had a touch of a southern drawl, but it was over-toned with age and cynicism.

Tim stood there for a moment to take in the sight of the woman before him. A middle-aged woman, maybe 35-40 years old, with the first signs of aging–crow's feet at the corners of her eyes–and a pair of glasses that were square–_very professional_, Tim thought–and the contrast of the gold frames to her brunette hair told him that she was used to wearing glasses. He figured her as a single woman–because there was no ring of any sort that had prevented the absorption of sunlight–that was cynical of people, based on her tone of voice. The observation that astounded him the most was the fact that she didn't look up from the papers in front of her neither when he asked nor while she asked a question.

"My phone's dead and I need to contact my boss."

"Is it local?" the woman asked, still not looking up from her files.

"It's to Washington, D.C., NCIS. Special Agent Timothy McGee, ma'am," Tim said, finally getting a response of cooperation from the woman.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir," apologized the secretary as she handed him the landline.

"_Gibbs."_

"Hey, Jethro. I'm here. I thought I'd use landlines to call the cell I bought you last Christmas. There's no way _she_ has this number. Anyway, I'm here and I'll get the investigation done. Tony's on his way back out of RUA. After his phone call with Snow White, he was awfully upset and he's not in the best of moods. I'd advise Alex to run and hide for a bit to let Tony calm down a bit first."

"_Oh, yeah? He'll be safe for now. I'll have a talk with DiNozzo before they go at it. By the way, would you happen to know anything about a __Yelena Belova__ in the __Marvel__ comics? The computer used __to hack us was registered to her with the computer named __Marvel Kid__. Neither Alex nor Abby have any idea what that means, but she did a search and it spit out __Black Widow__? Does that mean anything to you?"_

"Um, boss, that character was a Russian spy with a very bad back story. She's not someone to be messing with if Snow White is trying to emulate this character," Tim said, with a noticeable trace of fear in his voice. "She was a child protégée in what Marvel called _Moscow Red Room_, which was an espionage training facility. The character was also a master martial artist. If she is trying to emulate her, she is going to be a dangerous opponent."

"_Good to know, Tim. Anything else you know about this character? A group or an affiliation with whom she had been aquatinted?"_

"Have you ever heard of Hydra?"

"_Yeah, isn't that that group with the Red Skull?" Gibbs asked as he scratched his head._

"Sort of, Jethro. But the Red Skull did work for them. Yeah, she worked for them shortly. Like I said, Yelena is a bad apple, even worse than the original Black Widow. If Snow White is emulating her, we've got a major problem on our hands."

"_How long do you think it will take you to get through all the interviews you have prepared?"_

"Maybe a couple hours. I'm going to visit Blake's pastor, his principal, and some of his former employers here in town. I shouldn't be long. I'll try to be back today, Jethro. Are you going to stay up?"

"_Of course I am. You expect me to do anything different?"_

"Not really, boss," Tim said with a smile that crept across his face at Jethro's attempt to be interested in comics and his protection of him. "I'll call you when I get down with the principal here at the school. Fortunately, he was principal here while all three of them–MacAlswerth and both of the Winters' kids–were here. Bye, Jeth."

Tim hung up the phone and looked at the secretary, who was giving him a very obtuse look of hatred. "What?" Tim asked her.

"You're sleeping with your boss? And he's a guy?"

"And? He loves me, and I him. We're very happy together. So what he's a man? I've tried having relationships with women, but he understands me better than any woman ever did. Besides, I know how to keep my personal and professional lives separate."

"I just find it strange that the government would hire you kind of people. So does 'don't ask, don't tell' apply there, too?"

Tim was getting angry with this woman. He hated the feeling small-minded people brought out in him, especially if it was in a small town. "If it does, but I don't really care. And neither does he. Do _you_ have a problem with 'my kind of people'?"

"No, no problems. Just don't hit on my boss; he'll kill you quicker than a mongoose on a snake. He even kicked out his own son, for that very reason, several years ago. I just couldn't believe that sleeping with the boss ran so high up in the government," the secretary said pointedly.

"Well I'm sorry that changes your opinion of the government, but I don't have any intention of hitting on any other man. Jethro's more than enough for me," Tim responded with the same pointed pitch as he heard from the woman.

She picked up the phone and called Mr. Adenerson. "He'll see you now."

Tim opened the door an older man, probably in his late 50's to early 60's. His hair was snow white, thinning, and combed to the left to try to cover the obvious bald spot shining through. The man sat back in his wingchair, with a look of pride in his face. He looked about 20 pounds overweight, but Tim chalked that up to the "down-south" cooking that he probably ate every night at dinner made by his wife. He chuckled at his thought about the cooking because he was starting to watch shows that featured that style of cooking. He realized that he would have to have Jethro exercise more. These thoughts made Tim grin even wider.

"Howdy! What can we do here in little ol' Daleville for you federal peoples?" Adenerson said as he stood to shake Tim's hand, nearly squeezing the life of it.

"I'm Special Agent Timothy McGee, Mr. Adenerson. I just have a few questions about a Blake Winters."

"Well, shoot away, my boy!"

"Did he have any girlfriends while he was here? Or any girls that had a crush on him but was a bit shy about it?"

"Well, let me see," James said as he got out of his chair behind the desk and walked to the couch that was in his office, "I do remember him having this one girl that he took to senior prom. A Dorothy, Dorothy…" He paused a moment and put his hands over his eyes, in front of his bifocals. "Vanderbilt! Dorothy Vanderbilt! He was proud that he finally remembered the name, but when he did, his countenance dropped almost immediately.

"What's wrong, Mr. Adenerson?" Tim asked when he noticed the look of sorrow in the man's face.

"Ms. Vanderbilt was a loner, although very pretty," James started. "I remember hearing a rumor that she had blackmailed Winters into going with her to prom, I believe it was over a scandal involving the head cheerleader. However, when I asked her about the 'scandal', she denied it, as did he. I passed it off as a vicious rumor and did nothing more. I believe he was voted king at prom, but you could go ask the librarian to see that year's yearbook to make sure."

…

About ten minutes later, Tim found himself in the library. He stood in wonder at the school's library, however small it was, because this was his home–even if it wasn't his high school. He walked up to the librarian–an older lady that looked rather frail with snow white hair, also probably in her early to mid-sixties, that "hadn't married because of her love for books". She could tell that Tim loved books and loved it even more when he told her that he was the author of _Deep Six_. Tim was very quiet, in respect for his beloved library, and asked her if she had known a Blake Winters. She stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts and told Tim that she remembered him and his girlfriend weren't the prom king and queen–which, even though she didn't understand the tradition, thought was a little odd. She went on how she remembered him to be studious and was always in the library for several hours after school had ended, studying and doing homework. She vaguely remembered that he ran around with a couple of misfits, but couldn't remember the children's names because she said that even twenty years ago many children didn't stay in the library like she and her friends were prone to do when she was young. She went on about how the library is a wasted resource these days, now that children were more interested in games and computers and various "devil's playthings," but she looked and Tim, noticing that he was graciously smiling at her, listening to her rant. Tim asked if Winters' girlfriend ever go leave with him as he left the library after school. She also remembered a Dorothy Vanderbilt coming in each day to pick him up, but she didn't remember much else about the boy.

Thanking the librarian, Tim walked out of the school with some useful information and looked at his watch. _12:00_ it read. _This is going to be a long day_, thought Tim. _I'd better go find something for lunch_.

…

Tony had been on the plane for an hour. He was pissed at Snow White for bringing up Alex, but he was getting even more pissed at Alex each passing moment as he contemplated what Alex wasn't telling him, especially about his criminal history. _I'm going to kill that man if I find out that he's been lying to me for all these years! He's been my informant on too many cases, and to have him help on this case! How did she know about him? That's the main question that I want answered. How would Snow White know him and his past? He's was an FBI agent, for cryin' out loud! I wonder if Tim's got a name of that friend of Winters. I hate that I had to leave him. When I see her, she's going to wish she had never kidnapped the MacAlswerths._

It would be another two hours before he could get any answers…


	23. Chapter 23

I'm a Queen in Peru

Alex, Gibbs, and Agent Yamato had continued looking through the photos and files on the conference room table. Alex had compiled the five other cases' information in order of the murder date, and began comparing the others to the information he had about the two dead Petty Officers. He noticed that in the first photo, the killer started with a red bullet.

The victim was a young Japanese man in his late 20's, that lived in Fujiyoshida, working as an apartment manager in of several building in town. The police there did find signs of a struggle but couldn't put any potential suspects there at the scene of the crime. The young man, an Arata Nakayama–age 28, was found in his bedroom with the distinguishing triangle on his face, but the coroner determined that his was peri-mortem. He had been bound to the bed in an upright position with the blood spatter all behind him. The photos showed that there had been strategically tossed, but nothing was missing from his residence. They thought this was the work of a serial killer who had no need of material things. Alex was inclined to agree with them. The bullet casing was found at the doorway to the bedroom, suggesting to Alex that murder wasn't the primary intention, just an afterthought.

However, when Alex looked at the M.E.'s report for the second victim, a Fumito Sakamoto–age 52, was found with under an overpass with an orange bullet casing found about a foot away from the body.

Mr. Sakamoto was a principal of the Yoshida High School, and as Alex imagined, it was probably the same for the students there as it was for kids here in America. Principals aren't always any of the kids' most favorite person of authority and were often the target of threats and pranks. Sakamoto-san did have a long list of threats against him, but Isuma said that there weren't any serious, just your typical "I hate you, here's wishing you dead" banter you would expect from high schoolers from any country actually. Alex chuckled at the idea.

He began to look at the crime scene information: Isuma said that the coroner reported that the triangular mark was made post-mortem.

_The first mistake, Alex thought, you made was changing your pattern of where they were killed. The second mistake was changing your M.O. You wanted your first victim to suffer the pain of the carving, this one you just wanted the police to know that you weren't going to stop until you were caught. Now the question is: Why were there only seven victims? The last two weren't even a part of your culture, so why did you kill them? Were they just innocent bystanders?_

"Isuma-san, could you look up in Sakamoto-san's information why the police found him under the bridge, ku-do-sai? Did I pronounce that right?" Alex asked Yamato.

Isuma chuckled. "Yes, thank you," he said with a smile on his face, "but if you're going to use that form of the verb 'please', use my last name. You used the honorific form and that generally goes with a last name." Isuma shuffled through the stack of case files and found the file he needed. "It says here that when questioned by police, his wife, Anoko, said that the bridge was on his regular walk to work."

"So, the killer got bolder. What time did the killing take place, Isuma?" Gibbs asked as he was looking at his phone.

"It happened around … 5:30 in the afternoon. He must have been on his way home from work when this happened."

"There are no defensive marks on his hands. The look on his face is of surprise. He knew his killer and was shocked by it," Alex said as he looked through the stack of photos. "There aren't any defensive wounds on any of the victims. Sir, may I use MTAC? I think we're dealing with a very personal killer."

…

Tony's plane had landed from Roanoke in Dulles International. He sprinted off the plane, towards the front gates and walked out the doors to hail a cab. "NCIS, please," Tony said curtly to the cabbie, "and step on it."

_What am I going to ask? Where am I going to start? I hate this! I'm supposed to be able to trust Alex. I like him. A lot. He's always there for me and he's really dependable. I wonder what that bitch knows or if she just said that to split me and Tim up. Shit, Tim! I'm such an ass. I promised him that I would show him a good day, but… Shit! What a way to spend Christmas…_

…

Ziva, Tsubame, and David were playing a card game that David was teaching them called _Bullshit_. It was something that Ziva couldn't understand, _why lie about what cards you put down? It makes no sense._

A moment later, Damon Werth walked in. "Ziva!" he called out with a huge smile on his face.

"Ah!" Ziva called out as her name was being called out from behind her, jumping up and gaining a silent chuckle from her young charge. "Damon, how many times do I have to tell you: do NOT come up behind me!"

"I'm sorry, Ziva. Honestly, I'm sorry, but I can't help myself to do it. You know how much I love to see you jump," Damon said as he appeared behind Tsubame, looking at Ziva with a smile.

David stuck his thumb under his lower lip and began to bend his extended index finger–the sign for "who". Ziva looked at David, recognizing the questioning look on the child's face. "Tsubame, could you please explain to David that this is my ex-boyfriend, Damon?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Are you still sore at me, Ziva?"

"Well, you are my ex. What do you think?"

"Aw, and here I wanted to come and ask you to spend Christmas with me…" Damon said, feigning a look of defeat.

"I'm spending Christmas with Gibbs and hopefully David, here, and his family," Ziva said with no care to the look she saw on his face.

*Ding*

"Ziva, have you seen Alex?" Tony yelled at the Israeli from the open elevator doors.

"No, last I saw, he was in the conference room with Gibbs and Isuma."

"They are in MTAC, Agent DiNozzo," Tsubame said quietly.

"Thank you, Agent Suzuki," DiNozzo said as he stormed passed Damon, Ziva, and the two others.

"What's his problem, Ziva?" Damon asked as Tony ran up the flight of stairs to MTAC.

…

Inside MTAC, Isuma was talking to Director Michiko Kouno. "Kouno-san, we were wondering if you could do a correlation search of the five victims. Alex here has a feeling that these attacks on these two men were a retaliation of a victim of a bully–possibly a sadistic one at that–that had nothing to do with the other murders."

"Interesting theory, if I do say so myself, Yamato-san," Michiko said with a smile creeping across her face, "I will see what my people can put together."

"Actually," Alex chimed in as he stood up from the seat he was sitting in, "I was wondering if we could have the access codes to your system? It will be simpler and quicker. You wouldn't mind, Kouno -san, would you?"

"Ask Director Vance his opinion. I'll go with whatever he chooses to do," she replied.

"I'll be right back, ma'am," Alex said as he sprinted out the door. Alex opened the first door to leave MTAC, but as he rushed through–

*BUMP*

"I'm sorry! I was on my way– T-T-"

"Alex, you and I have a lot to talk about."

…

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE–*

"He's crashing! We gotta save him!"

"Daniel! Daniel! DANIEL!"

"Stand back ma'am. I need a crash cart in room–"

"Here it is, Doctor!"

The doctors tried for two minutes to resuscitate Daniel MacAlswerth but nothing they could do brought him back. At 2:38 P.M., Christmas Eve, they pronounced him dead. He was 50 years old.

"NOOOOOOO!"

"Mrs. MacAlswerth, please, come this way," said the young nurse as she pulled and tugged at the woman who had just seen her husband die. Catherine was fighting her with everything she had in her to be near her husband's body, but in her hysterical state, her strength was fleeting her.

Five minutes later, the doctor came out with the nurses and the crash cart. He walked up to her alone. "I'm truly sorry, ma'am, we did everything that we could. May I ask: how those wounds were inflicted upon him?"

*sniffle* "He and I were tortured for a case file number *sniffle* that had gone unsolved by some bitch and her two Russian goons."

"I have to send the body to NCIS here in D.C. for an autopsy, but of course you know that already ma'am, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Would you like to accompany your husband's body to see Dr. Mallard? I'm sure Agent Gibbs and Director Vance will want to help you."

"Yes, thank you."

…

Tim was satisfied with the lunch he had purchased. The waitress at the diner was kind and helpful, so Tim left her a $3 tip. In exchange, she left him her number on a napkin. _Now off to see the pastor,_ Tim thought as he got into his car.


End file.
